Why the Dalai Lama matters
The Dalai Lama has confirmed that a successor will be chosen after he passes. The Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959 when China invaded Tibet and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India.
This week, the Dalai Lama, gave the strongest indication yet that the 600-year-old institution would continue after his death. The leader, who turns 90 on July 6, is according to Tibetans the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. He said that leaders of Tibet’s spiritual traditions, members of the Tibetan parliament and government in exile, both of which are in the Indian district of Dharamshala, and Buddhists from around the world, including mainland China and Tibet, had written to him, requesting that the institution continue.
His statement was issued as Buddhist scholars and revered monks from around the world have converged on McLeodganj town in Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama lives, to participate in his 90th birthday celebrations. The town, also known as “Little Lhasa” because it is in effect the capital of Tibetan Buddhists in exile, will also host an intense three-day religious conference that the Dalai Lama will preside over.
But the occasion isn’t only religious. How the next Dalai Lama is chosen, and by whom, carries deep geopolitical significance. For centuries, Tibetan Buddhist leaders have chosen and enthroned a new Dalai Lama only after an intense quest and subsequent schooling after the incumbent passes away. If the current Dalai Lama, the 14th, offers any more details in the coming days about how his successor might be chosen, or who it might be, that would represent a dramatic break with tradition.
The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who fled Tibet for India in 1959, is seen as a separatist by Beijing, which was quick to push back against the spiritual leader’s comments, insisting that it had a veto over the choice of the next Dalai Lama. The United States, which has long cited the Tibetan movement in exile as evidence of China’s human rights abuses and oppression, will want to make sure that the glue that binds it all, the institution of the Dalai Lama, continues.
Traditions consider the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and each Dalai Lama is believed to be the successor in a line of reincarnations. Traditionally, the search for the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation typically begins after a period of mourning. High-ranking lamas form a search committee to identify the next Dalai Lama, based on signs such as the direction of the smoke blowing from his cremation, the direction where he was looking when he died, and oracles’ visions.
Once potential candidates are identified, they undergo a series of tests to confirm their identity as the reincarnation. Candidates are usually young boys born at about the time of the previous Dalai Lama’s death. But the current Dalai Lama has said that there is no reason why a woman cannot be the next reincarnation. After a candidate is chosen, the child begins a rigorous education in Buddhist philosophy, scriptures and leadership responsibilities, preparing them to assume the role of both a spiritual and, historically, political leader of the Tibetan people.
China insists that only its government has the authority to approve the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, treating it as a matter of national sovereignty and religious regulation. This position was cemented in a 2007 law, which mandates that all reincarnations of Tibetan living Buddhas must be approved by the state and must follow Chinese laws, religious rituals and historical precedent. Chinese officials have repeatedly stated that the next Dalai Lama must be born inside China, and any foreign-born or exile-appointed successor would be considered illegitimate.
Tibet observers and scholars believe that after the 14th Dalai Lama’s death, Tibetan Buddhists might well find a scenario where two rival successors jostle for legitimacy, an exiled leader, appointed by the lamas faithful to the incumbent Dalai Lama, and one appointed by the Chinese government.
For India, which hosts the Tibetan government-in-exile, the succession of the Dalai Lama intersects with national security and its fraught border relationship with China. New Delhi will want to carry on giving hospitality and refuge to the Dalai Lama and his followers. The U.S. interest in Tibet dates back to the Cold War era, when the CIA backed Tibetan resistance against Chinese occupation, in the 1950s, including after the Dalai Lama’s exile. In 2015, when China claimed authority to select the next Dalai Lama, US officials publicly rejected this, asserting that Tibetan Buddhists alone should decide. The most forceful position came in 2020 with the passage of the Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA) under President Donald Trump. The new U.S. position explicitly supported the Dalai Lama’s right to determine his own reincarnation and authorized sanctions on Chinese officials who interfered in the process.
The Dalai Lama will continue to be a symbol of freedom and resistance towards the occupation of Tibet. It shows China as an insecure, weak and petty country, trying to hold on to its internal power structure by all means, but with no depth and soul. China truly is an adversary to the world, as it continues to be against freedom.