The management of the reincarnation affairs of the Living Buddhas, including the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, is a social responsibility that the Chinese central government must perform throughout the course of history, Wang Yanzhong, director at the institute of Ethnology and Anthropology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences noted. “The main believers of Tibetan Buddhism are in China, and in the familiar environment of this group of people, it is undoubtedly reasonable to search for and identify the reincarnated living Buddha in the way they are used to, which also reflects the Chinese government’s ‘people-oriented’ concept,” Xiao said. He believed that some countries’ proposing that “Tibetan Buddhism has become a world religion” and regard the Chinese government’s management of the reincarnation of Living Buddhas as “undermining the freedom of religious belief,” is a great distortion of the reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhist living Buddhas. It has long been known as religious rituals and historical conventions, and has been confirmed by Chinese laws and regulations. Xiao Jie, deputy director at the Institute of Contemporary Studies of CTRC, noted that the reincarnation of living Buddhas has been practiced in China for hundreds of years. The Chinese central government of today adheres to the historical conventions of the reincarnation of Living Buddhas, managing the social and public affairs of the reincarnation of Living Buddhas, while overseeing institutionalized and regulated processes based on relevant laws, Zheng stressed.
The central government and relevant local governments in China have never relaxed and never given up their management of the reincarnation of the Living Buddha. In December 2021, the US named Undersecretary of State Uzra Zeya as “special coordinator for Tibet.” A year before, then US president Donald Trump signed the so-called “Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020” – a bill which grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs.įor a period of time, overseas “Xizang independence” forces and Western politicians have hyped up the issue of the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama for political purposes, ignoring the tradition of the Buddhism, and acting as an adverse influence on the religion. Xizang (Tibet)-related affairs have been a tool of the US and other Western countries used to smear China on human rights and other issues. The 14th Dalai Lama himself was found and recognized following religious rituals and historical conventions and his succession was approved by the then central government. The institution of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has been in existence for several hundred years, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reincarnation of Living Buddhas is an institution of succession unique to Tibetan Buddhism and is governed by fixed religious rituals and historical conventions. Ten experts and scholars of related studies made speeches during the event, demonstrating the development of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism, the religious rituals and historical customs of the reincarnation, and the practice of the sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism. “This not only has sufficient historical basis, but also conforms to the provisions of the current law, which cannot be shaken by any separatist forces,” he pointed out in his keynote speech. “The affairs related to the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama belong to the domestic affairs of Tibetan Buddhism in China, which must respect the wishes of the Chinese Tibetan Buddhist community and the majority of religious believers, and accept the management of the Chinese government,” Zheng Dui, Senior Fellow and Director-General at the China Tibetology Research Center (CTRC), said at the event in Beijing on Monday.
#DALAI LAMA BUDDHISM OFFLINE#
The event, namely the “International Webinar on the Religious Rituals and Historical Customs of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas,” was held on Monday from an offline venue at the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing. Scholars in Tibetology from China and overseas have shared studies and discussed the fixed religious rituals and historical conventions of Living Buddha reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism through a sideline event of the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council, during which the jurisdiction of Chinese central government over Dalai Lama’s reincarnation was further reaffirmed.
A replica of the golden urn and ivory slips bestowed by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty to the Eighth Dalai Lama is on display at a museum in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, August 11, 2014.
0 kommentar(er)
