To avoid Chinese maneuvers, the 14th Dalai Lama may consider self-emanating when he is still alive, i.e., appointing a successor and recognizing him as his “emanation.”
by Ugyen Gyalpo
Just few weeks ago, the Tibetan community of New York and New Jersey offered Tenshug, long life prayer ceremony for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the UBS Arena in New York. Seventeen thousand Tibetans and other devotees of His Holiness showed up who were lucky enough to get the tickets for this small venue arranged by the able organizers at a short notice.
A poignant moment of the whole ceremony was the time when four hundred Tibetan children facing His Holiness sitting on the traditional Buddhist throne sang the song “Tashi Sho.” The arena’s massive screen alternated between images of children singing and the crescendo of their emphatic voices echoing through and the visibly smiling image of the Dalai Lama which looked noticeably frailer as he was recovering from a knee surgery. The cropped-out video of the children singing went viral on Chinese social media within Tibet, although it omitted the stage where His Holiness was seated.
I was deeply moved by this powerful moment, and many others were similarly reduced to tears. Witnessing somebody who embodies Avalokiteshvara and has served as a fatherly figure for the Tibetan people was profoundly emotional.
His Holiness has guided the Tibetan movement through tumultuous times and has been instrumental in preserving Tibetan language, culture, and the future of Tibetans born in the diaspora, who are now thriving globally. The thought of Him slowly succumbing to aging and the forces of nature was a sinking feeling. Despite His Holiness’s assurances through prophetic dreams that he would live up to the age of 113, the reality of the Tibetans people’s vulnerability without him is undeniable. The Chinese government, with its “long wait game,” seeks to exploit this vulnerability.
China is known for employing the stratagem of “long wait game” and the issue of Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process is no exception. For almost three decades now dating back to 1995, China already hatched the plan to highjack the reincarnation process of the Dalai Lama and set the foundation of its sinister campaign by conspiring and executing the abduction of the 11th Panchen Lama, a six-year old boy recognized by the Dalai Lama, next in line on the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy. After the abduction of the six-year-old child and the arbitrary arrest of the entire family, China soon after installed their own fake Panchen Lama approved by an atheist Chinese Communist Party. Today this fake Panchen Lama groomed by the CCP tours Tibet, conducts Kalachakras amidst a captive audience who are forced to worship him under the barrel of the gun and advocates allegiance, adherence, and total submission to the ideology of the Party and thought of Xi Jinping.
China always has a thirty-year plan, forty-year plan, and fifty-year plan in all its policy agendas and the plan to totally hijack the Dalai Lama institution is already on the thirty-year mark when His Holiness is precariously treading on the age of ninety.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the soul of Tibet. Tibetans have been led politically and spiritually by fourteen reincarnations of the Dalai Lamas, and he is synonymous to Tibet itself. Imagining Tibetan existence without Him is like envisioning a lost herd of sheep without its shepherd. The hopes and aspiration of Tibetans rest on one person, and the CCP is hellbent on exploiting this. To win over the Tibetan spirit, controlling the fate of the Dalai Lama to tame the Tibetan resistance against Chinese rule has become the paramount objective of the Party. To impose their version of a manufactured Dalai Lama “made in China” to subvert, influence, manipulate, defeat, and win over the hitherto indomitable spiritual world of Tibetan Buddhism is their foremost priority.
We may lack the leverage to engage in international diplomacy and politics with China. However, in order to fight against China in its own dirty game, Tibetans, along with the Tenshug offering for the long life of His Holiness, must also request His Holiness and pray that he considers self-emanating within this lifetime. If His Holiness wishes his reincarnation to be sought outside of Tibet, then request to self-emanate into a soul of a child born in the United States of America should be included in our prayers. An American-born Tibetan child should be a “game changer.” Being an American is a strong currency of its own and it comes with political clout and direct representation of the people of Tibet, in a land where many legislative measures for Tibet have been passed, and bi-partisan support remains steadfast and rock-solid to this day across the aisle of the Congress.
Whether Tibet has been used for geopolitical self interest by the Americans is the debate for another day! Whether or not we acknowledge this, a vacuum without a reincarnation and looming threat of the CCP hyenas hovering around to alter the course of our history is a real concern. Therefore, ensuring a continuous presence of His Holiness without a gap between reincarnations is crucial. Imagining the 15th Dalai Lama while the 14th is still present, particularly if the child is a Tibetan American groomed by the greatest Ocean of Wisdom could thwart China’s effort to hijack the Dalai lama institution and take over Tibet entirely.
