Dalai Lama: Zurich at the heart of the succession

The Dalai Lama confirmed on Wednesday that a successor would be appointed to his death to perpetuate his function of spiritual leader of the Tibetan community, drawing the immediate response of China which requires approving its name.

“I assert that the institution of the Dalai Lama will be perpetuated,” he said in a highly anticipated message read during a religious meeting at McLeod Ganj, in northern India, where he lives in exile.

Unsurprisingly, China, whose troops invaded Tibet in 1950 and made it a Chinese province, immediately reacted.

“The reincarnation of great Buddhist figures such as the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama must be designated by drawing (…) and then approved by the central government,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Born on July 6, 1935, Tenzin Gyatso for civil status became from the age of 2 years the fourteenth spiritual and political leader of the Tibetans, duly identified by the Buddhist tradition as the reincarnation of his predecessor.

He fled “his” capital Lhassa and Chinese repression in 1959 and has spent most of his time in a monastery of McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.

Winner in 1989 of the Nobel Peace Prize, he has since embodied the fight for the freedom of the Himalayan territory.

The question of his succession is the subject of a standoff between the Dalai Lama and Beijing, who intends to name a successor to him in his hand.

“The responsibility (of the appointment of a successor, note) will be based exclusively on the members of the Ganden Phodrang Trust, the office of His Holiness Le Dalai Lama,” said the message of the Tibetan leader on Wednesday.

“They will conduct research and recognition procedures (from the successor) in accordance with past tradition,” he insisted “,” no one else has the authority required to get involved in this question “.

The Ganden Phodrang Trust is a foundation based in Switzerland, in Zurich, recalls “20 minute”. Most of its executive members are in India, but one of its vice-presidents and the executive director are in Switzerland, says his site.

One of the members of the Foundation explained that he had not yet received written instructions from the Dalai Lama on his succession, because he is still “healthy”, reports Reuters. He said the successor could theoretically be of any genre and any nationality.

The current Dalai Lama, considered as a dangerous separatist by Beijing, has already repeatedly dismissed the idea that the 15th Dalai Lama could be appointed by the Chinese.

He will necessarily be “born in the free world,” he promised publicly.

“Nothing has changed with regard to the involvement of China, the subject was not mentioned in detail,” said before the press, after the distribution of the message, a representative of the Dalai Lama office, Samdhong Rinpoche.

In 1995, China had removed and placed a 6 -year -old child in detention that the Dalai Lama had just designated as Panchen Lama, the other leading Tibetan religious figure.

And she had in the process appointed as such the candidate of his choice, immediately rejected by the Tibetans as the “false panchen”.

The challenge launched to China by Dalai Lama rejoiced on Wednesday the Tibetan community.

“We resolutely oppose any interference or attempted China to install a Dalai Lama Fantoche,” a Tibetan in exile, Jigme Taydeh, underlined to AFP.

“This decision gives the international community the historic opportunity (…) to send a strong message to Beijing and to all authoritarian regimes,” added a supporter of Tibet autonomy, Fire Lhamo, 30 years old.

“I have no doubt about the fact that our fight for the truth and justice will eventually prevail,” added this woman, exiled in the United States.

Even if in recent years, the Dalai Lama has suggested the idea that it could be the last, a majority of Tibetans was favorable to the pursuit of the “cycle of reincarnation”.

In his message, he reported on Wednesday the many requests from his community in favor of the extension of his office.

“I have received in particular, by various means, many Tibetan messages from Tibet repeating this same call,” he said.

An name of his office, Samdhong Rinpoche, said that no other instruction had for the moment been given on the appointment procedure.

“They are not necessary at this time,” said Mr. Rinpoche at a press conference, “his holiness the Dalai Lama is currently in great shape”.

In 2011, the Dalai Lama had renounced the political power of its office, entrusted to a Prime Minister, elected by the diaspora, and to a government in exile.

The festivities organized for its 90th anniversary continue until the end of the week.