...
...
Next Story

14th Dalai Lama still undecided on his reincarnation

The Buddhists in Tibet, at large, still swear by the 14th Dalai Lama despite Xi Jinping regime's attempt to impose Han culture on the territory occupied since 1950.

Published on: Oct 1, 2022, 09:19:48 IST
Advertisement

The office of the 14th Dalai Lama has denied reports that Tenzin Gyatso, high priest of the Gelugpa School of Buddhism, is planning to announce that he will not reincarnate to save Tibetan Buddhism from attempts by Chinese Communist Party to control reincarnations.

The 14th Dalai Lama, who escaped to India from Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959.
The 14th Dalai Lama, who escaped to India from Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959.

According to officials close to the living Buddha of compassion, Dalai Lama has neither taken any such decision nor has plans to announce anything like this in the future. ´His Holiness has often told us that he will live up to 113 years of age and continue serving the people of Tibet and Buddhist world at large,” said a senior official. No decision on reincarnation has been taken, said the official.

In his three interviews to this correspondent in the past two decades, the 14th Dalai Lama has maintained that he is still to take a decision on his reincarnation as he was fit and of sound mind.

While the Xi Jinping regime and the CPC have done their utmost to brainwash the Buddhist in Tibet and impose Han culture on the territory occupied since 1950, the public at large still swears by the 14th Dalai Lama and follows the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In its Sinicization of Tibet program, the Chinese rulers want the world to call Tibet as Xizang, just as Sunni Muslim dominated Sinkiang province is now called Xinjiang. In this mission, it is quite possible that the CPC may announce and present a reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama during his biological lifetime, who will be totally at odds with what the Living Buddha desires for his people in Tibet.

Given the clout and reach of Chinese propaganda machine, the Central Tibetan Administration or Kashag issued a press release on Thursday clarifying its position on the reincarnation issue of the 14th Dalai Lama. It made it clear that the CTA is of the firm belief that Tenzin Gyatso will live to the ripe age of 113 years as per “propitious prescient and the repeated assurances of the Dalai Lama.” The press release stated: “With regards to the reincarnations of his Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness’s repeated statements since 1969, the official pronouncements of September 24, 2011, or any guidance in the future is inherently discretionary. No government nor any individual has the right to interfere in this matter.”

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta

Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather and major national developments.
Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather and major national developments.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Hindustantimes wants to start sending you push notifications. Click allow to subscribe