Amazing hypocrisy on China’s part. They no more believe in reincarnation than they do in political or economic liberty, so they attack the Dalal Lama for violating “the religious rituals and historical conventions.” This, after they have spent half a century actively trying to elminate both! This, after they arrested (and for all we know killed) the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama who was recognized by the religious authorities, and put in their own. This, too, after they passed a law saying that the Dalai Lama would have to have official government approval to reincarnate! Idiots.
This from the Independent: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3187092.ece
China furious at Dalai Lama plan to name successor
By Clifford Coonan, China Correspondent
Published: 23 November 2007
China has accused Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of violating the religious rituals and historical conventions of Tibetan Buddhism by suggesting he might appoint a successor before his death instead of relying on reincarnation.
Beijing’s latest broadside against the Dalai Lama is a sign of heightening tensions between the central government and the man Tibetans see as a god-king. While reincarnation sounds like an esoteric concept to those of other belief systems, it is a deeply political issue in the isolated Himalayan enclave.
The Dalai Lama said Tibetans would not accept a successor who was selected by China after his death, prompting an angry response from Beijing. “The reincarnation of the living Buddha is a unique way of succession of Tibetan Buddhism and follows relatively complete religious rituals and historical conventions,” said Liu Jianchao, a Foreign Ministry spokesman . “Dalai’s remarks obviously violated the religious rituals and historical conventions.”
The Chinese see the Dalai Lama, 72, as a dangerous separatist. They accuse him of continuing to inspire demands for independence among the 2.7 million Tibetans living in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and refuse to allow him back inside its borders.
The Tibetan leader, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and is based in Dharamsala in northern India, insists he is a moderate who preaches a “middle way”, which seeks special autonomy for Tibet within China, not independence. He has asked to be allowed to come to China to visit holy sites such as Wutaishan, a sacred mountain devoted to Tibet’s Buddha of Wisdom. He also wants to see for himself the astonishing economic progress that China has made.
Even though Tibetans remain fiercely loyal to the figure they regard as a god-king, who fled the capital Lhasa in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, there is a younger breed of hard-line Tibetan nationalist emerging to fill the power vacuum his death will inevitably leave. The Communists have ruled the religious life of the remote territory with an iron fist and the selection of lamas has been a crux issue between the two sides.
The second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, the 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, was anointed by Beijing while still a child in 1995. The six-year-old picked by the Dalai Lama was whisked away by the government and is thought to be under house arrest.
China has been accused of simply waiting for the Dalai Lama to die, avoiding any real discussions over the future of the region. When he dies, they can simply install a replacement of their choosing. China is keen to ensure whoever succeeds the Dalai Lama is someone it can do business with and on its terms.
Mr Liu said Beijing was respectful of the conventions of Tibetan Buddhism, as it had demonstrated by “a recent rule on the reincarnation of great lamas,” referring to new laws released on 1 September, which require reincarnations of “living Buddhas” to have official approval.
Relations between the Beijing leadership and the Dalai Lama have been under serious pressure following a number of high-profile appearances for the Dalai Lama, including the award of the United States’ highest honour, the Congressional Gold Medal, by George Bush last month.
Frank,
To me, the most important facts within this event are two related “firsts”, and one “obvious“ : one, this is the first time a modern government has openly affirmed the reality (existence) of reincarnation as a force in nature; and two, this is the first time a modern government has accepted that one’s reincarnation can be controlled by one’s self, in this case, the human individual known as the Dali Lama. But first time or not, it is obvious that the Chinese government has accepted these two religious principles as a platform for its current hostile dialogue with the Dali Lama, and that public acceptance, I think, is progress worth celebrating. Politically, to move your opponent without violence to consciously or unconsciously acquiese to your values is to move you both to the “check” position that precedes the “checkmate” resolution that serves everyone.
I don’t see it that way. They aren’t affirming the reality of reincarnation and they don’t mean to be implying that one affects one’s own return. All they are affirming is that the state has the right to decide what is real and what is not in spiritual life no less than in every other aspect of human existence. In this they are serving as a mirror of the West’s own atheistic bias that has been hardening continually at least since the Renaissance reminded us of the possibility of independent inquiry, but at the price of turning a blind eye to spiritual reality. It is this mirroring that the Chinese are offering us (and that, involuntarily), nothing more. ‘s how I see it, anyway.