Dalai Lama says China
'pretending' to know about reincarnation
REUTERS
Sui-Lee Wee Jul 16, 2015
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has
ridiculed China's Communist Party for wanting to control his
reincarnation, saying the government is "pretending" to know more
about the system than he does, the New York Times reported on
Thursday.
Tibetans fear that the Chinese government will use
the issue of the Dalai Lama's succession to split Tibetan Buddhism,
with one new Dalai Lama named by exiles and one by the government
after his death.
The Dalai Lama's comments are likely to draw an
angry response from China.
"The Chinese Communist Party is pretending that they
know more about the reincarnation system than the Dalai Lama," the
Dalai Lama, who recently turned 80, told the New York Times in an
interview.
Tibetan Buddhism holds that the soul of a senior
lama is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death. China
says the tradition must continue and it must approve the next Dalai
Lama.
However, the Dalai Lama has said he thinks the title
could end when he dies.
Chinese officials, however, have stressed that the
government must approve the next Dalai Lama and the current Dalai
Lama has no right to abandon reincarnation.
China, which regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous
separatist, has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since Communist
troops took over the region in 1950.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959
after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.
The Nobel Peace laureate said his biggest concern
was that China would name the next Dalai Lama, saying "the
precedent has been set", the New York Times said.
In 1995, after the Dalai Lama named a boy in Tibet
as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama, the second
highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, China put the boy under house
arrest and installed another in his place.
Many Tibetans spurn the Chinese-appointed Panchen
Lama as a fake.
The Dalai Lama "hinted that he would hold some kind
of referendum among Tibetan exiles, and consultations among
Tibetans within China" about his succession, saying the issue would
be formally resolved around his 90th birthday, the newspaper
said.
The Dalai Lama praised Chinese President Xi
Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, the newspaper said. He also
said Xi's mother was "very religious, a very devout Buddhist," and
noted Xi himself had spoken positively of Buddhism.