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Dalai Lama, his succession and its significance | SAM Vignette
South Asia Monitor
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7/2/2025
Dalai Lama, his succession and its significance | SAM Vignette
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00:00
In 2010, during an interview with me, the Dalai Lama had said that when he turned about 90,
00:06
he would decide whether to continue the institution of the Dalai Lama.
00:11
At that point and for years after that, he was uncertain whether it should continue or perhaps
00:17
be ended with him, given that China was bent upon hijacking and exploiting it to tighten
00:24
its control over Tibet and its future. I found it quite remarkable that he was certain in his
00:29
mind that not only would he live to be 90, but even be in a position to make that determination.
00:36
Fifteen years later, today in Maklod Ganj in Himachal Pradesh in India, the Dalai Lama has
00:42
put to rest all questions about the institution's future. He has announced that there will be a
00:48
successor to him after his death. In reaffirming that, the 14th Dalai Lama has opted to preserve
00:55
the centuries-old tradition of finding his reincarnation rather than yield to the short-term
01:01
strategic temptation of outwitting China by naming one in his own lifetime.
01:07
This ends years of uncertainty over the defining question of who after him.
01:14
The language of the announcement, which comes four days before his 90th birthday on July 6th,
01:20
is constructed to emphatically say that Beijing will have no role at all to play in the matter of
01:27
choosing his successor. In his statement today, the Dalai Lama said, and I quote him,
01:34
The trust was set up by the Dalai Lama with the primary responsibility to determine his reincarnation
01:53
after his death. Contrary to the long-standing popular expectation that the Dalai Lama could
01:58
announce an interim successor until a reincarnation is determined after his death, he has chosen the
02:06
option that sets the stage for a long-term conflict between Beijing and the institution of the Dalai
02:12
Lama. It is clear now that the next Dalai Lama will be from outside China and Tibet. This flies in
02:19
the face of the Chinese government's insistence that the Dalai Lama will be from China and will have to
02:25
be approved by it. It is entirely possible and even likely that at some point after the current Dalai
02:32
Lama passes away, there will be two rival Dalai Lamas, one chosen in accordance with the centuries-old
02:38
tradition of locating a reincarnation and the other handpicked by the communist establishment
02:44
under their control. Reports from Beijing suggest that the government is already in the process of
02:51
creating a narrative where their own Dalai Lama will become more acceptable. As part of that effort,
02:57
officials are being sent to schools and offices to explain how the government will choose their Dalai
03:03
Lama. Over the last 14 years, there has been uncertainty over the question of whether the institution
03:09
of the Dalai Lama will continue after his death. At a meeting of the heads of the Tibetan
03:15
spiritual traditions on 24th September 2011, he had said, and I quote him,
03:21
as far back as 1969, I made clear that concerned people should decide whether the Dalai Lama's
03:29
reincarnation should continue in the future, unquote. In his statement today, he said, and I quote again,
03:35
I also said when I'm about 90, I will consult the high Lama of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions,
03:41
the Tibetan public and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism to re-evaluate whether or
03:48
not the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue, unquote. What has persuaded the Dalai Lama
03:54
to continue the institution beyond his lifetime is that over the last 14 years, various Tibetan Buddhist
04:00
stakeholders from around the world have appealed to him that it should continue. In the statement today,
04:07
the Dalai Lama said, and I quote him again, although I have had no public discussions on this issue
04:12
over the last 14 years, leaders of Tibet's spiritual traditions, member of the Tibetan parliament in
04:18
exile, participants in a special general body meeting, members of the central Tibetan administration,
04:25
NGOs, Buddhists from the Himalayan region, Mongolia, Buddhist republics of the Russian Federation,
04:31
and Buddhists in Asia, including mainland China, have written to me with reasons earnestly requesting
04:37
that the institution of the Dalai Lama continue. In particular, I have received messages to various
04:44
channels from Tibetans in Tibet making the same appeal. In accordance with all these requests,
04:51
I am reaffirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue, unquote, he said.
04:56
Although the institution of the Dalai Lama primarily concerns some six million Tibetans in Tibet,
05:03
its future has global significance. Hundreds of millions of non-Tibetan Buddhists do look up to
05:10
the Dalai Lama as someone representing the more than 2,500-year-old philosophy of Gautam Buddha.
05:18
China could not have realistically expected the Dalai Lama would just step aside and let it ride
05:23
roughshod over what the Tibetan people regard as the most potent symbol of their traditions.
05:31
It is from that standpoint that the announcement today becomes even more significant. He's reclaiming
05:38
future history rather than letting China gradually erase all traces of the uniqueness of the Tibetan
05:45
culture. So far, Beijing has simply waited for the Dalai Lama's death and make even deeper
05:51
inroads into Tibetan life. With this announcement, it is now up against a formidable bloc, especially
05:57
because the Dalai Lama has reached the decision after widespread global consultation. It is now
06:05
inevitable that the 15th Dalai Lama will be from outside China and Tibet. If that turns out to be from
06:12
among the Tibetan community exiled in India, it will set the stage for even greater tensions between the
06:18
two countries. Reincarnations of Dalai Lama's are a highly guarded and secretive process as part of
06:25
which potential children are subjected to a rigorous series of tests to establish their knowledge of
06:32
their past lives. In the case of the 15th Dalai Lama, the prospective children will be required to
06:38
remember specific details of the current Dalai Lama's life, including perhaps some personal objects.
06:44
Scholars who preferred a sort of placeholder successor to be named in his lifetime have
06:51
pointed out the dangers of the long gap between a new reincarnation after its death growing in stature and
06:58
influence and Beijing hijacking the institution and propping up its own Dalai Lama.
07:05
Perhaps the Dalai Lama's thinking has been to preserve the sanctity of the mystical process of finding a
07:11
reincarnation the way he was found when he was two years old. His announcement today reclaims that history
07:18
and poses a great challenge to China when it embarks on its own process of declaring the next Dalai Lama.
07:28
The challenge for Beijing will be to persuade the Tibetan people even while tightening control over the future of
07:35
Tibet and its ancient traditions. Thank you for watching.
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