(TibetanReview.net, Nov30’19) – In keeping with his previous remarks that he would consider laying down instructions on the question of his reincarnation only in his 90’s, the Dalai Lama has said Nov 29 that he was in great health and there was no hurry for him to address the matter. The Dalai Lama’s remarks came during his address to a gathering of some 117 monks and nuns belonging to the different sects and schools of Tibetan Buddhism and from Tibet’s pre-Buddhist religion Bon on the concluding day of the 14th Tibetan Religious Conference being held at Dharamsala, India.
The participants included the heads or representatives of the heads of all the religious traditions of Tibet.
“I am fine physically and mentally — is there any hurry to talk about my reincarnation?” Tibetsun.com Nov 29 quoted the 84-year-old exile spiritual leader of Tibet as saying.
The gathering had, on its inaugural day of Nov 27, pleaded to the Dalai Lama to continue his reincarnation institution, given the criticalness of the situation of the Tibet issue; resolved that as per the over 800-year-old tradition, the Dalai Lama alone had the prerogative to decide about his own reincarnation; and made it clear that no 15th Dalai Lama imposed by China will be acceptable to the Tibetan people.
Responding to the event at Dharamsala, atheist China has reasserted its plan to install its own 15th Dalai Lama and accused the West of being behind the Tibetan move. “Dalai and the Western powers that support him frequently comment and try to interfere with the succession issue,” claimed China’s official globaltimes.cn Nov 29.
Citing Zhu Weiqun, former head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the report said, “Some are predicting there will be a contest on the reincarnation issue for which the central government is confident and prepared. The reincarnation issue has never been a purely religious affair or Dalai Lama’s personal affair. It is a significant political event for Tibet, showing the central government’s sovereignty over the autonomous region.”