Dalai Lama's Reincarnation: China's Political and Religious Stance

This report delves into the contentious issue of the Dalai Lama's reincarnation, examining the Chinese government's persistent involvement despite the 14th Dalai Lama's stance. The report explores the political motivations behind China's insistence on controlling the reincarnation process, including its strategic aims in the anti-separatist struggle. It outlines the Chinese government's attempts to regulate the process through measures like the “Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism,” and the opposition it faced from Tibetan religious leaders. Furthermore, it provides insights into how the issue is perceived by the Chinese populace and the Western world, highlighting the different perspectives and historical contexts influencing these views. The report draws on various sources to analyze the multifaceted nature of the conflict, offering a comprehensive understanding of the political and religious implications surrounding the Dalai Lama's reincarnation.

THE REINCARNATION SYSTEM OF
Dalai Lama

TOPIC
The 14th Dalai Lama has
claimed that he will not reborn
(Mullen, 2016).

Why the Chinese
government still insist
that the dalai lama
reincarnation system
must continue ?

The Chinese government insist that the Dalai Lama system
must continue in order to ensure that there is victory over
the anti-separatist struggle (Wolff, 2013). They wants the
tradition to continue and hence, it must approve and accept
the next Dalai Lama.

How china government
deal with the issue ?

The Chinese government implemented the “Measures on the
Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddha in Tibetan
Buddhism” in 2007 (White, Sousa & Berniunas 2014). But it was
highly opposed by religious leaders belonging from 5 main
streams of the Tibetan Buddhism and the Ministry of Religious
and Cultural Affairs of the Tibetan government in exile. The
Chinese government now insists that there is a need for the
15th reincarnation of Dalai Lama and they are fighting hard to
continue the system.

How Chinese people look
at the issue ?

People in China thinks that the rule of Dalai Lama was evil and
was morally bankrupt (King, 2013).

How Western look at the
issue ?

The history gets ignored in the Western part, when it comes
to the question of reincarnation of Dalai Lama, from both
the right and the left (McConnell, 2013). People from the
right dig him as he is anticommunist, whereas the people
from the left fall over themselves in order to explicate
everything he says as a mixture of enigmatic Eastern pearl
of wisdom and intense New Age.

References:
Wolff, S. (2013). Conflict management in divided
societies: The many uses of territorial self-
governance. International Journal on Minority and
Group Rights, 20(1), 27-50.
White, C., Sousa, P., & Berniunas, R. (2014).
Psychological essentialism in selecting the 14th
Dalai Lama: An alternative account. Journal of
Cognition and Culture, 14(1-2), 157-158.
McConnell, F. (2013). The geopolitics of Buddhist
reincarnation: contested futures of Tibetan
leadership. Area, 45(2), 162-169.
Mullen, E. (2016). Orientalist commercializations:
Tibetan Buddhism in American popular
film. Journal of Religion & Film, 2(2), 5.
King, S. B. (2013). War and peace in Buddhist
philosophy. A companion to Buddhist philosophy,
631-650.