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The 14th Dalai Lama, the best non secular chief of Tibetan Buddhism whom China sees as a “harmful separatist,” seems to have outsmarted the communist-ruled nation by quietly saying the brand new head of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, a place for which China needed Mongolia to hunt its consent.
The announcement occurred on March 8 throughout an occasion in India, and the media picked up the information on March 23. Nonetheless, as of March 28, there was no response from China, which in 2017 had warned Mongolia towards permitting the Dalai Lama to meddle within the identification of the inheritor to the best place in Mongolia’s Buddhist hierarchy. There was no official response from Mongolia both.
“We’ve the reincarnation of Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoché of Mongolia with us at present,” the Dalai Lama mentioned, indicating a small boy sitting subsequent to him, whereas addressing a gathering of about 5,000 monks and nuns and 600 Mongolians on March 8.
The place was Dharamshala, a north Indian Himalayan city the place the Dalai Lama has been primarily based since 1960, a 12 months after fleeing China and getting into India in exile. The Tibetan Parliament in Exile and the Central Tibetan Administration function out of Dharamshala.
Tibetan Buddhists make up the biggest chunk of the inhabitants in Mongolia. Nonetheless, figuring out the tenth Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (additionally spelled as Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoché) significance past Mongolia, and even past China-Mongolia relations. The Jebtsundamba can also be thought of the third-highest non secular chief of Tibetan Buddhism globally — solely after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. Due to this, he can play an important position within the Dharamshala-backed institutional seek for the subsequent Dalai Lama – itself a serious bone of rivalry between the Dalai Lama and China.
The seek for the tenth reincarnation of the Jebtsundamba started after the ninth reincarnation died in 2012. Nonetheless, after the Dalai Lama, throughout a 2016 go to to Mongolia, revealed that the tenth reincarnation of the Jebtsundamba had been recognized, China requested Mongolia to not permit him to go to the nation once more.
“Contemplating the importance of his reincarnation and taking into account that he (the late ninth incarnation) is a private good friend, I really feel I’ve a duty to take care of his reincarnation,” the Dalai Lama had mentioned. He added, “I’m satisfied that his reincarnation has been born in Mongolia. Nonetheless, the boy could be very younger proper now, so there isn’t a want for haste in making an announcement. When he’s 3, 4, or 5 years outdated, we’ll see how issues are.”
Now that the Dalai Lama has launched the tenth Jebtsundamba earlier than the general public, and in addition “met briefly with a major contingent of Mongolians” after the occasion, a rebuke from China may very well be within the offing. China doesn’t need the Dalai Lama to have something to do with figuring out the reincarnations of Tibetan Buddhist Lamas, together with the Dalai Lama. They declare there’s a long-existing system for figuring out such reincarnations and people should be adhered to.
In 1995, when the 14th Dalai Lama named a Tibetan boy because the eleventh Panchen Lama, the kid was allegedly kidnapped by the Chinese language authorities quickly after and has not been seen or heard from since. China additionally introduced its personal selection of the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama has not acknowledged the Chinese language selection.
China had, in 2007, legalized the necessity for governmental approval earlier than saying any reincarnation of Buddhist Lamas. Regardless that Mongolia just isn’t Chinese language territory, China at all times needed to have a say on issues involving Tibetan Buddhism. In a World Occasions article from 2021, titled “Qing authorities’s administration over Tibet, authority over reincarnation of residing Buddhas indeniable,” Zhang Yun, director of the Institute for Historic Research on the China Tibetology Analysis Heart, cited a 1793 ordinance of the Qing empire in assist of the follow that China desires to uphold.
“Emperor Qianlong… issued a golden urn to the Jokhang Monastery, ordering that on the demise of any Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama, Jetsun Dampa Hutuktu and different Hutuktus and lamas in Tibet and Mongolia, the names and birthdays of the Khuvilgaan candidates can be introduced, and put into the golden urn. With the lamas chanting and the Resident Ministers in Tibet supervising, a reputation shall be drawn from the urn and that might be the identify of the Khuvilgaan,” he wrote.
That is how the eleventh Panchen Lama was chosen, China claims. That is how they need to decide the subsequent Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Parliament in Exile have dominated this out.
In 2010, the Dalai Lama mentioned in an interview, “If the current state of affairs concerning Tibet stays the identical, I can be born outdoors Tibet away from the management of the Chinese language authorities. That is logical. The very goal of a reincarnation is to proceed the unfinished work of the earlier incarnation. Thus if the Tibetan state of affairs nonetheless stays unsolved it’s logical I can be born in exile to proceed my unfinished work.”
The Central Tibetan Administration has since then repeatedly maintained that the Dalai Lama alone is chargeable for his reincarnation.
Nonetheless, in case the 87-year-old dies with out naming his successor, the position or opinion of the Jebtsundamba can emerge essential, as a lot of Tibetan Buddhists don’t acknowledge the China-recognized Panchen Lama.
Subsequently, having the tenth Jebtsundamba chosen by the Dalai Lama provides the Tibetan authorities in exile an edge over Chinese language authorities on affairs referring to Tibetan Buddhism.
“For the reason that demise of his ninth reincarnation in 2012, Mongolia has walked a geopolitical tightrope with China on one facet and Dharamsala on the opposite. When and the way the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu reincarnates will give one facet far more energy over the way forward for Tibetan Buddhism, with vital geopolitical penalties,” wrote Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, an Ulaanbaatar-based geopolitical analyst who has served on the Nationwide Safety Council of Mongolia, in a 2022 article.
Earlier this month, an article in The Diplomat identified that Mongolia’s pursuit of its subsequent non secular chief had develop into “a high-stakes sport of energy and affect behind the scenes, with China’s rising sway casting a shadow over the nation’s non secular affairs.” China was “seemingly nudging Mongolia to hunt its approval earlier than acknowledging a brand new chief.”
Whether or not or how Mongolia acknowledges the reincarnation stays to be seen, as they must do it at the price of irking their superpower neighbor. In 2016, after the Dalai Lama’s go to, China blocked an important border entry level and imposed new charges on commodity exports from Mongolia, prompting the landlocked nation to announce that they might not host the Dalai Lama once more. China hoped Mongolia had realized a lesson.
In addition to, the tenth Jebtsundamba will nonetheless need to be formally enthroned by the Mongolian clergy. In 2016, Mongolian overseas minister on the time, Munkh-Orgil Tsend, had mentioned that he hoped the Mongolian clergy would cope with the reincarnation “with out the affect or involvement of any outsiders.” Now that the Dalai Lama has already launched him, when and the way the Mongolian clergy responds will play a key position in figuring out the long run course of Tibetan Buddhism that guides the non secular lives of thousands and thousands of individuals in Asia.
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