Dalai Lama’s Successor Will Be Decided Only In Dharamsala : India Must Assert
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces
The PLA on the orders of the Communist Party of China entered Tibet in 1951, and by 1959 had forcibly occupied the entire country. Thus Since last 62 years the peaceful people of Tibet find themselves under the tyranny and slavery of the Chinese Communists. Tibetans have since been living in the fetters of invading Communists, cut off from the rest of the World. There has been hardly any progress and economic development with only a small light at the end of the long gloomy tunnel, in the form of their Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, and a 15000 strong Special Frontier Force, ready to liberate Tibet when the time comes.
Mansarovar and Mount Kailash have been pilgrimage sites for Indians from the days of Rig Veda and before. After all Mount Kailash is the abode of Lord Shiva since CREATION, whereas Chinese “talk “ about “ruling” Tibet since their Qing Government sent an expeditionary force into Tibet in 1793. Whereas Tibet has been an independent country since thousand of years, it has never been part of the Chinese empire.
The 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political head of Tibet had to escape to India in 1959 along with some of his countrymen following the Chinese Occupation of his Country. There was also an uprising by the local population in Tibet but they were no match for the PLA. The fight for freedom was brutally crushed by the Chinese Communist. However India granted political asylum to His Holiness Dalai Lama and to the Tibetan government-in-exile which has been based in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh since then.
The Dalai Lama is now85 years old and the issue of his successor has gained prominence in the last couple of years due to his advanced age. Yesterday on 21 May, China announced that any successor to the present Dalai Lama should be approved by it, ruling out recognition to any heir nominated by him or by his followers
The incarnation of Dalai Lama and other grand Living Buddhas follows a fixed ritual and rules as laid down in the holy Tibetan scriptures. The Dalai Lama’s succession issue was in the limelight, especially in the last few years after a very nervous and frightened China stepped up campaign that the right relating to the reincarnation of Dalai Lama’s successor should be within the exclusive authority of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo and not the present Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.
However, the rest of the World has risen up to the Occasion and the USA even took a politico- legal step. They passed the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 (TPSA) in the US Congress which makes it official United States policy that decisions regarding the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama are exclusively within the authority of the current Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leaders and the Tibetan people.
The Tibetan Parliament in Exile too must pass a similar Act and thereafter the Indian Parliament too must rise up to the Occasion and pass a resolution supporting the Law as established by the Tibetan Act.
While trying to usurp the powers and ownership of the 14 dalai Lama through massive propaganda and half truths, the Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have nonetheless clearly accepted that the institution of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has been in existence for several hundred years ie much before the Chinese even stepped on the Tibetan Plateau. A total of 92 reincarnated Living Buddhas have been identified and approved through traditional religious rituals and historical conventions for temples in Tibet as established by the free Tibetan Society.
Till the Communist PLA arrived in Tibet, traditional religious activities were carried out regularly in accordance with the law and examination of scriptures. However since 1951 the Chinese Communist Party -led powers began to cultivate the idea of “Tibet as integral part of China “ and intentionally began undermining Tibetan sovereignty, religion, culture, language and even territorial integrity. Any protest has been crushed brutally and Human Rights abuses are rampant. This must come to a stop now.
Howver over the years, Tibetans now spread all over the World, have continued the fight for freedom under the leadership of the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile. All this has been done in the most peaceful manner. Though what has frightened the PLA is the professionalism and the valour displayed by the Special Frontier Force during the recent clashes between the PLA and the Indian Army on the LAC in Ladhak.The day is not far off when the Tibetan independence will actually be celebrated in Tibet. Just let the PLA make one more mistake of attacking the Indian Army.
The Chinese claim that in 1959 No country or government in the world ever acknowledged the “independence of Tibet,”. Then how come the Tibet Parliament in Exile and the Tibetan Government in Exile came into existance at Dharamsala.People of most of the free world, including India do not adhere to the Chinese Communist Party claim of ‘One China’ policy, Tibet and Taiwan are not an integral part of China.
Since 1959 China has been systematically undermining the Tibetan Society. There have been huge curbs on religion. More than 1,700 sites for Tibetan Buddhist activities are in a very poor state and the condition of over 46,000 monks and nuns is pathetic. Even the four mosques serving 12,000 native Muslims, and a Catholic church with more than 700 followers are hardly in any better condition. Conditions are so bad that over 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2011 demanding the return of the Dalai Lama from his exile.
Chinese are carrying out brutal social engineering in the name of building a new modern socialist Tibet. The Tibetan language is being undermined to promote the official Chinese language. The Tibetan spoken and written language was earlier widely used in Tibet and this is being erased in a systematic manner. Tibet’s economic conditions have been deterirating and comparatively there has been hardly any progress. Very few in the counties have risen out of poverty, and the people are leading pathetic lives in every respect.
The Chinese have even disturbed the territorial integrity of Tibet by creating a new state called Tibetan Autonomous Region. The People of Tibetan are being reduced to minority by settling of Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities from other regions. Already out of 439 deputies to the Chinese created People ‘s Congress of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, around more than one third that is 150 plus are non Tibetans.
