(TibetanReview.net, Aug05’25) – Marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China’s top Tibetan official there has on Aug 5 sought to make the point that the Chinese government has the unquestionable decision-making authority in the matter of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in an assertion of China’s current authoritarian rule over the Tibetan territory.
The legitimacy of the title of the Dalai Lama originates from the central government, China’s official Chinadaily.com.cn Aug 5 cited Gama Cedain, chairman of the TAR government, as saying during a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing.
“Reincarnation has never been solely determined by the Dalai Lama himself. The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must strictly follow the principle of ‘carrying out the search domestically, drawing of lots from a golden urn, and gaining approval by the central government’, while complying with the country’s laws and regulations,” Gama Cedain has said.
And so, the discovery of the next Dalai Lama will be carried out by the Chinese government, and not under the current Dalai Lama’s directions, Reuters Aug 5 cited Gama Cedain as saying, China considers the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate a separatist and wants to bring Tibetan Buddhism under its control, but the Dalai Lama and his huge following have been obstacles to that ambition, the report noted.
The Dalai Lama has only been seeking genuine autonomy for his Tibetan homeland, but the Communist Party of China-state wants nothing short of total and absolute control over the territory for which it had earlier, in 1951, offered a version of its “one country, two systems” policy.
At his 90th birthday celebrations last month, the Dalai Lama assured the Tibetan public and other followers that he would continue to reincarnate, and that a non-profit institution he had set up will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation.
The Dalai Lama has previously said the logic of his reincarnation lies in his decision to continue his unfinished work in this life and so there was question of him being reborn in a territory under the control of the CPC.
But Gama Cedain, who is also the deputy secretary of the CPC’s TAR committee, has said the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation would be found using a domestic search and approval by the central government.
“The central government has the indisputable final say in the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama,” the Reuters report quoted him as telling reporters at a press conference about the socioeconomic development in TAR over the past 60 years.
Earlier, in 1995, China installed a boy picked by Beijing as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, after abducting and disappearing forever a six-year-old boy already recognized by the Dalai Lama. The Panchen Lama is Tibet’s second most prominent religious figure.