Mongolia reassures China against Dalai Lama revisit, 10th Khalkha Jetsun Dhamba approval

(TibetanReview.net, Jan26, 2017) – China said Jan 24 that Mongolia’s Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil had reiterated to his counterpart Wang Yi that the Dalai Lama will not be granted a visa again and, significantly, stated his country’s position on the approval of the 10^th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, referring to the Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa, Mongolia’s spiritual head.

Wang said Mongolia shall draw lessons from the Dalai Lama’s visit last November and respect China’s major concerns and core interests, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Jan 24. The report said Wang made the remarks over a telephone conversation with his Mongolian counterpart at the latter’s invitation.

The report added that Mongolia’s top diplomat, on his part, reiterated his country’s public stance on the Dalai Lama’s visit and the approval of the 10^th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa, saying Mongolia attached great importance to its relations with China, and will safeguard the bilateral ties’ political basis and promote bilateral relations with practical actions.

It was not clear what the reiteration on the approval of the 10^th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa reincarnation was or meant. During his visit to Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar over Nov 18-23, the Dalai Lama was reported to have expressed his belief, on Nov 23, that the reincarnation of the 9^th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa had been born in Mongolia and that a process for identifying him had begun.

The previous Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa, the 9^th, was born in Tibet’s capital Lhasa to Tibetan parents in 1932 and lived among Tibetan refugees in India after China invaded and occupied the country. He was recognized at the age of four but his identity was kept secret as Mongolia had by then come under communist rule, as a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of Russia. He spent only the last several years of his life in Mongolia, following his enthronement there in 1991 after the country regained its independence and became a democracy. He passed away in Mongolia in early 2012.

The first Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa was recognized by the Fifth Dalai Lama Lobsang Ngawang Gyatso as the reincarnation of Taranatha, a scholar of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, when the young tulku first travelled to Tibet from Mongolia, conferring on him all his lineage initiations, empowerments and the further teachings, as well as his present title.