DHARAMSHALA, March 13: The Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay has termed “ridiculous” a Chinese claim over the succession of the current Dalai Lama. Speaking to Reuters, Sangay said, “It’s like Fidel Castro saying, ‘I will select the next Pope and all the Catholics should follow.”
Sangay’s reaction came after Zhu Weiqun, head of ethnic-and-religious-affairs committee and former head of the United Work Front Department, which oversees ties with overseas Chinese, claimed China had the authority to chose the next Dalai Lama.
“He sometimes says he will reincarnate as a foreigner in a place where he visits, sometimes to a woman. When someone gives him a bottle of honey, he would happily say he is going to become a bee in the next life,” Zhu said on the sidelines of the China’s annual parliamentary session.
The Dalai Lama has already rubbished Chinese claims as being irrational. “Today, Chinese government considers religion as a poison and they consider me as a demon. So, I would be a demon reincarnation. This is nonsense,” His Holiness said.
“About my reincarnation, only the Dalai Lama has the authority to decide and no one else has the right to decide,” the Tibetan spiritual leader had said in the past. “As early as 1960, I have made it clear – ‘officially’ that it is up to the Tibetan people whether Dalai Lama institution should continue or not.”
Saying “he is not in a hurry” to decide on the reincarnation issue, the Nobel peace laureate pointed out that the Communist Party of China was seemingly more concerned about his reincarnation.
“If Chinese government believe in rebirth and religion, then they should start it from the reincarnation of Mao and Deng Xioping’s reincarnation.”
China in 2007 introduced a new law requiring government permission for the reincarnation of lamas.
