I happen to be an athiest myself, but suppression of religion is a crime against humanity.
Wed Aug 8, 2007 2:10 pm (PST)
From The Times/August 4, 2007
China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before
they reincarnate
Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from
reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist
leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to
assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and
deeply Buddhist people.
“The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without
government approval is illegal and invalid,” according
to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.
The 14-part regulation issued by the State
Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at
limiting the influence of Tibet’s exiled god-king, the
Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of
the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing.
It is the latest in a series of measures by the
Communist authorities to tighten their grip over
Tibet. Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead
religious communities and oversee the training of
monks, giving them enormous influence over religious
life in the Himalayan region. Anyone outside China is
banned from taking part in the process of seeking and
recognising a living Buddha, effectively excluding the
Dalai Lama, who traditionally can play an important
role in giving recognition to candidate reincarnates.
For the first time China has given the Government the
power to ensure that no new living Buddha can be
identified, sounding a possible death knell to a
mystical system that dates back at least as far as the
12th century.
China already insists that only the Government can
approve the appointments of Tibet’s two most important
monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.
The Dalai Lama’s announcement in May 1995 that a
search inside Tibet – and with the co- operation of a
prominent abbot – had identified the 11th
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989,
enraged Beijing. That prompted the Communist
authorities to restart the search and to send a senior
Politburo member to Lhasa to oversee the final choice.
This resulted in top Communist officials presiding
over a ceremony at the main Jokhang temple in Lhasa in
which names of three boys inscribed on ivory sticks
were placed inside a golden urn and a lot was then
drawn to find the true
reincarnation.
The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama has disappeared. The
abbot who worked with the Dalai Lama was jailed and
has since vanished. Several sets of rules on seeking
out “soul boys” were promulgated in 1995, but were
effectively in abeyance and hundreds of living Buddhas
are now believed to live inside and outside China.
All Tibetans believe in reincarnation, but only the
holiest or most outstanding individuals are believed
to be recognisable – a tulku, or apparent body. One
Tibetan monk told The Times: “In the past there was no
such regulation. The management of living Buddhas is
becoming more strict.”
The search for a reincarnation is a mystical process
involving clues left by the deceased and visions among
leading monks on where to look. The current Dalai
Lama, the fourteenth of the line, was identified in
1937 when monks came to his village.
China has long insisted that it must have the final
say over the appointment of the most senior lamas.
Tibet experts said that the new regulations may also
be aimed at limiting the influence of new lamas.
-Cecil Touchon
Your thoughts?
(Thanks to The Glitch and Xuchilbara for finding this article…)
