Chinese government has 'final say' in Dalai Lama reincarnation, Tibetan official says

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

The discovery of the next Dalai Lama will be carried out by the Chinese government, and not under the current Dalai Lama's directions, a Chinese Communist Party committee official for Tibet said on Tuesday.

China considers the Nobel laureate Dalai Lama 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.

At his 90th birthday celebration last month, he assured followers that he would be reincarnated, and a non-profit institution he has set up will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation.

But Gama Cedain, the deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party committee in Tibet, 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," he told reporters at a press conference about the socioeconomic development in Tibet.

He said that was the creed devotees adhered to, and the government's process follows the strict religious rituals and historical customs of the reincarnation of living Buddhas.

"The reincarnation has never been decided by the Dalai Lama himself," he said.

The current Dalai Lama, 14th in the line of spiritual leaders for Tibetan Buddhism, has said his reincarnation will be born outside China and ruled out Beijing's role in choosing his successor.

China installed a Tibetan Buddhist monk picked by Beijing as the faith's No. 2 leader, the Panchen Lama,  three decades ago after a six-year-old chosen by the Dalai Lama for the position disappeared in 1995.