Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama takes off his glasses to ask if there's any hurry to talk about his reincarnation during the closing ceremony of the three-day Tibetan Religious Conference in Dharamshala, India, on 29 November 2019. Tibetan religious leaders and representatives of Tibetan Buddhist schools and the native Tibetan Bon religion attended the conference. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
McLEOD GANJ, India, 29 November 2019
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama briefly talked about the contentious issue of his reincarnation during a gathering of 117 Tibetan Buddhist and native Tibetan Bon religious leaders and representatives in the exiled headquarters of the Tibetan Diaspora in McLeod Ganj.
He indicated that there’s “no hurry” to talk about his reincarnation. The Dalai Lama quipped: “I am fine physically and mentally — is there any hurry to talk about my reincarnation?”
Describing an event in the US a few years ago, the Dalai Lama said, “A journalist asked me about my reincarnation. I took off my glasses and asked him how do I look? Is there any hurry for my reincarnation?”
The 84-year-old Buddhist leader appeared healthy and cheerful, but was helped by his attendants to walk past the gathering due to age-related knee problems, as he was escorted to the closing ceremony of the three-day 14th Tibetan Religious Conference by the President of the Central Tibetan Administration Lobsang Sangay.
He has said on a number of occasions that his intuition was telling him that he will live up to 113 years. He said he will then consult his advisors to decide on his reincarnation when he turns 90.
China is expected to pick a different 15th Dalai Lama despite Tibetan opposition, a move seen by Tibetans as to legitimise its control over Tibet. It has created new rules to control the reincarnation system of Tibetan Buddhism.
The conference adopted the following three-point resolution on the first day of the conference on Wednesday (27 November):
- The Karmic bond between the Dalai Lamas and the Tibetan people being unbreakable and the present status of the Tibetan people being extremely critical, all Tibetans genuinely wish for the continuation of the Institution and Reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in the future. We therefore strongly supplicate His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama for the same.
- The authority of decision concerning the way and the manner in which the next reincarnation of the XIV Dalai Lama should appear solely rests with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama himself. No government or otherwise will have such authority. If the Government of the People’s Republic of China for political ends chooses a candidate for the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan people will not recognise and respect that candidate.
- Regarding the method of recognizing the future reincarnations of the Dalai Lama, the same unique Tibetan traditional method, which has been continuously used until now, will be followed. This method conforms to the basic philosophy and tenets of the Buddhadharma and originated in Tibet over 800 years ago.
In early October, exiled Tibetan leaders and activists unanimously adopted a similar resolution recognising that the decision of Dalai Lama’s reincarnation vests solely in him and only he shall make decisions about his reincarnation.
We, the Ganchenpas, should count ourselves lucky that our most cherished lord and protector of the land of snow is such a wise, compassionate and down to earth leader in HH The Dalai Lama. We are truly blessed by his grace, his kindness and his wisdom for eighty four long years and counting. There have been 14 Dalai Lamas until now and all of them have led our nation wisely and showered our people with their infinite kindness and compassion. Among them all, the great 5th, the great 13th and the great 14th shine through as the brightest stars of them all in the Tibetan firmament. For those of us who have had the fortune to be under his kind gaze for the last 60 years in exile is our most cherished fortune. It’s the one and the only silver lining in our rather miserable refugee life in foreign soil. Miserable because we are a bunch of refugees wrenched from the soil of our fatherland by the evil marauding forces of communist China. The life of a refugee is the last existence of a human being with minimum comfort and never ending humiliation and fair game for abuse and mistreatment. In our darkest hours, we think of Kundun and in times of joy, we think of Kundun. He has been our saviour, our breath of air and the warm hearth in our empty hearts. By merely seeing Him, it enlivens our spirit and gives solace to our tired limbs and sullen souls. He has truly been the Lord to the benighted souls of the land of snow and it was his courage and valour that has enriched the hearts of the suffering six million Tibetans waiting patiently to see His grace ones before they breath their last on this earth. Will the weathering souls awaiting patiently for a glimpse of the sun of Tibet ever come to fruition in this tumultuous era? Nothing is permanent and the dark forces are the same.
Well said.