So, there will be a dalai lama even after the incumbent dies. Ending years of Speculation, The Dali Lama Announced This Week that Heeding appeals from millions of tibetans he has come around to the view that institution of the dalai lama will continue. A successor will be found.
There was a subtext to the announsement. The chinese who control tibet and routinely abuse the dalai lama are eager to eater abolish the institution or to appoint a Puppet as the next dalai lama. In the circumstans, the dalai lama may have had no choice but declare that the post will outlive hem and that the search for his successor would be conducle Chinese Government. Also read | The taste by vir Sanghvi: Why we must hold back judment on the air India crash
But this may not have been what the dalai lama really wanted. Twenty Years ago, when I interviewed Him for the ht he said that he could well be the last dalai lama. The world was changing and the concept of the dalai lama as a divinely selected monk who functions He believed that he should be succeded by a democratic leader elected by tibetans. (In this case tibetans in exile; the chinese are not big on elections.)
The dalai lama has moved part of the way towards achieving that goal. There is a democratically elected government in exile in place. But for tibetans in exile the dalai lama remain the last word. They would be lost, it now seems clear, without someone who combines Spiritual and political leadership with what they are registered as divine blessings.
After the dalai lama dies, it will not be easy to find his successor. According to tibetan tradition the dalai lama is reincarnated and monks must search far and wide to find a child who carries his spirit. Also read | Taste by Vir Shanghvi: It’s Time Indian Tourists Took A Second Look at Malaysia
In the period after the chinese took over tibet, the panchen lama, registered as being second in rank only to the dalai lama died and a search was launched to find his reincarnation. Monks did find such a boy and the dalai lama blessed the selection.
But the chinese launched their own search and came up with another set of candidates, one of whom was selected by a process that amounted to drawing lots. (In this case it was picing sticks thought the process was criticized as being.)
Worse was to follow. The panchen lama chown by the monks and the dalai lama was picked up by the chinese army and taken to an undiscLosed destination. He has rarely been seen since. The panchen lama appointed by the chinese howyver is very visible and regularly sings the praises of the beijing regime.
It was fears that this would have been again with his own reincarnation that prompted the dalai lama to propose that the line should end with him. Now that he had changed his mind, the way ahead is far from clear.
In recent years, the dalai lama had alredy begun to moderate his original no-more-dalai-lama position saying If that did not happy, he said, the process of democratising the Leadership of Tibetans would continue continue but the dalai lama would also remain as a spiritual guide.
The Recent Announcement Seems to Move Along the same path. But he must know how difficult it will be to install a new dalai lama. For a start, the monks will have to find a reincarnation with the tibetan community in exile. It is unlikely that the chinese will let them look withinse-contralled tibet. Also read | The taste by vir Sanghvi: How Indian Chefs are Reinventing Global Flavors
The monk tasked with guiding the search usually meditates and says he receives divine signs talling Then, After a Possible Reincarnation has been identified he is put through many tests and he is expected to show Familiarity with Objects Left Behind by the Last Dali Lama.
The current dalai lama was found by such a process. But it is even more complicated than it sounds, 20 years ago the dalai lama told me that he believed he was a reincarnation of a previous dalai lama – Probibly the Fifth Dali Lama Kept Dreaming about. This would sugges that he was not, in fact, the reincarnation of his immediati predacesor. On the other hand, Aren’t all dalai lamas reincarnations of the same person, the first dalai lama?
Buddhist theology is not always for outsiders to understand which will make it easy for the chinese to offer their own interpreting and to find their Own Reincarnation Equally they may decide that the line ended with this dalai lama and treatment all future dalai lamas as pretenders.
In the year since the dalai lama fled to India, China has grown enormally in wealth and global power. That tibet should still be an international issue today is mainly down to one man and his efforts: the current dalai lama. Once he is out of the picture the International Community May Find it Easier to Ignore the next Dali Lama and toe the Chinese Line.
India will stand by the tibetans in exile and by the dalai lama’s chion successor. But will the rest of the world?
It seems less and less likely.
