By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Aug 12: The democratically elected leader of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, officially known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), President Penpa Tsering, asserted in an interview with Amitabh P. Revi of Strat News Global that the decision regarding His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation will be made solely by His Holiness himself.
When asked to clarify the process of reincarnation, emanation, and succession concerning the next Dalai Lama, especially in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to control this process, Sikyong Tsering referred to the September 2011 document, which is the only official statement on the matter from the Dalai Lama. This document states that when His Holiness reaches the age of 90, he will consult the senior Buddhist hierarchy regarding his reincarnation.
“He has not come out with any statement post-September 2011 document. It will be decided by His Holiness and His Holiness alone. Even when His Holiness reaches the age of 90, if he feels good, he might say it’s too early to make a decision. One thing China cannot handle is unpredictability so they don’t know when His Holiness talks about emanation or reincarnation. China has all the economic power and their influence over the Global South particularly. They reshape these countries thinking so I think His Holiness is also being very strategic about his approach. We can be very very sure that he and he alone will be responsible for his reincarnation. He will definitely leave signs and indications regarding his reincarnations,” he said.
Tsering also discussed strategies to counter China’s economic dominance, highlighting the significant $400 billion trade deficit with 27 European countries—where Europe exports $200 billion to China while importing $600 billion. “China cannot do these if they don’t have access to foreign exchange reserves. The only way to bring China on its knees is to give them less business. Only then they will listen to the world, otherwise, they won’t. Unless governments don’t understand that then it will be very difficult to handle China. China will keep doing what they want to do because its ambition extends beyond just the rise of mainland China. They are talking about global security initiative, global cultural and civilisational initiative, a global economic initiative so it is all global,” the Sikyong stated.
When asked whether the CTA is considering India’s stance while advocating for “other countries” to adopt policies similar to those of the United States, the Sikyong stated that the decision ultimately rests with the Government of India. “The reality is that when we reach out to the international community, we don’t expect that country including India to leave aside their national interests for the interests of Tibet. That is understood by everybody. India has to understand its own national security from that perspective. I have also been saying that it’s time to recalibrate because there are a lot of changes happening geopolitically and geo-strategically in the region so you cannot have a very dogmatic or traditional approach. I think things would have to evolve as things change globally,” he asserted.
One Response
What if His Holiness Dalai Lama passes away beforing deciding his own reincarnation? Actually, 16th Karmapa Lama had said that he would do similar things, but he suddenly died. Due to that, four regents inlcuidng Tai Situ Rinpoche engaged in a very dirty power game with three others youngish lamas of Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism to manipulate the case of 17th reincarnation which involved Sikkim government Chielf Minister Bandari, Chinese Tibet Autonomous Region Chairmain, and loads of bribery to all stakeholders. This kind of situation can be extremely messy, and has immense impact on geopolitics in the Himalayan region. I think Dalai Lama has to clarify his reincarnation right now.
As a historian with expertise in European Christian inter- sectarian history since 10th century in Europpe, it is extremely likely that a civil war of a kind will ensure unless Dalai Lama or his office comes up with some clarity. Real issues in Christian relgious issues are not about relgion at all, but about power and money and various stakeholders, including very shady people, such as people from Stock Market in New York STock Exchange, etc. Even at this moment, like voltures awating a death in African Savanas, various stakeholders are waiting to analyse how best to reap maximum financial and religious and political gains they can make from Dalai Lama’s reincarnation geo-politics.
Tibet will lose out if HH Dalai Lama do not come clear this year. This is because other stakeholders have already calculated all possible scenarios of what will happen with India-China-USA geopolitics in case of an untimely death of Dalai Lama without choosing a successor.