(TibetanReview.net, Jan14’20) – The Dalai Lama has on Jan 11 reiterated his position that any reincarnation of him chosen by the Chinese government will not be accepted by the Tibetan people. Despite professing atheism, China has made it clear that it will determine and choose his reincarnate successor from within its territory. It claims to have inherited this right from the country’s imperial past Buddhist rulers in the late 18th century. The Dalai Lama lineage predates that period by some four centuries.
“Tibetans will not accept Dalai Lama selected by China,” said the Dalai Lama in an interview with the Editor-in-Chief Nitin A Gokhale of stratnewsglobal.com Jan 11.
“Physically, the Chinese have occupied Tibet but at the mental level, they can never control us. They use weapons to control and we influence their minds. Our method is much stronger than their weapons,” said the Dalai Lama in the interview which was held in his Gaden Phelgyeling Monastery residence in Bodh Gaya.
He was critical of China’s backwardness in political development, saying, “As for democratic practices are concerned, we a handful of Tibetans are more advanced as we have a freely elected political leadership. China has a totalitarian system.”
He has said the Tibetan people’s determination has not wavered across the generations and expressed optimism about future developments in China. He felt that there was a certain level of realisation within the leaders of the PRC that their policy on Tibet over the last nearly seven decades was “unrealistic”.
Asked about the possibility of his return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama was not sure at present, noting, however, that he was enjoying his freedom in India where he has been the longest guest.
China already has an 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second most prominent religious figure, chosen by it, installed in Tibet while the one recognized by the Dalai Lama has continued to remain disappeared after the Chinese government took him as a six-year-old and his family away in 1995.
