Why the Dalai Lama decided not to break from tradition on his successor

Sign up now: Get STs newsletters delivered to your inbox

The Dalai Lamas statement emphasised the consultative process through which he had reached his decision on the matter of succession.

PHOTO: AFP

Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar

DHARAMSALA, India – The Dalai Lama has spent decades in exile thinking about ways to

prevent the Chinese government from taking control

Early on, he suggested that the institution of the Dalai Lama could be ended altogether to deprive Beijing of a target to exploit.

Later, he focused on how to keep the Communist Party of China from installing its own choice to succeed him.

He floated a sharp break from precedent, saying he might transfer his spiritual powers to an adult during his lifetime to avoid the vacuum that would come with selecting a child as his reincarnation and successor.

But on July 2, as senior monks filed into a much-anticipated conference in Dharamsala, India, as part of 90th birthday celebrations for the Dalai Lama, he made clear that tradition would prevail.

The institution of the Dalai Lama, he said, will continue. And his successor will be selected through the usual process of reincarnation.

His decision reflected the fine line that even a modernising Dalai Lama must tread between preserving a core element of Tibetan Buddhism and shielding it from political manipulation by Beijing.

It showed the limits of his powers to reshape the institution he has towered over for more than seven decades, as well as his pragmatic understanding of Tibetans’ David-vs-Goliath struggle