By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, April 30: A Chinese government spokesperson has said that the United States is interfering with their internal affairs on Friday after the US Senate passed a resolution last week that rejected Beijing’s role in the reincarnation process of Tibetan spiritual figures.
“The resolution reflects that some people in the United States have always been inexplicably ignorant and arrogant,” Chinese government mouthpiece Xinhua reported Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying as saying.
On April 26, the US Senate unanimously passed resolution 429, that “affirmed its support for the Tibetan people’s fundamental human rights and freedoms, including their right to self-determination and the protection of their distinct identity. The Senate expressed its sense that prominent among these rights is that the identification and installation of Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders as a matter that should be determined solely within the Tibetan Buddhist faith community, in accordance with the inalienable right to religious freedom.”
The resolution that received bipartisan support called for the sole authority of Tibetans to determine the reincarnation of their spiritual figures in general as well as the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama, the foremost Buddhist figure in the Tibetan Buddhism.
Xinhua reported Hua as saying that, “a living Buddha’s reincarnation should follow those rituals, conventions and China’s laws and regulations and should not be interfered by anybody or any foreign country,” reiterating Chinese communist government’s intrusive stand that many ridiculed and labelled to be politicising a deeply religious matter to the Tibetan Buddhists.
The antics of Beijing claiming authority over the reincarnation of Tibetan spiritual leaders, many say, have prompted the move. China has earlier abducted the Dalai Lama endorsed Panchen Lama considered by many to be the real Panchen Lama and instead appointed their own candidate.
China has also claimed legitimacy over the right to appoint the next Dalai Lama. The 82 year old Dalai Lama in response have claimed sole authority over the matter and said it is up to the Tibetan people whether a next Dalai Lama should come or not.
