[Buddha-l] Permit required for reincarnation

[Wong Weng Fai]

China tells Tibet's living Buddhas to apply for reincarnation

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070803/tts-china-tibet-religion-incarnation-a73cdd6.html

AFP - Friday, August 3BEIJING (AFP) - - Tibetan living Buddhas are no 
longer allowed to be reincarnated without permission from the atheist 
Chinese government, state media reported Friday.

The new rules are "an important move to institutionalise the management of 
reincarnation of living Buddhas," the Xinhua news agency said.

According to the regulations, which take effect on September 1, all 
reincarnation applications must be submitted to religious affairs 
officials for approval, Xinhua said.

China is ruled by the Communist Party, which, despite being officially 
atheist, maintains strict controls over Tibetan Buddhism and all other 
religions.

Living Buddhas are an important element in Tibetan Buddhism, forming a 
clergy of influential religious figures who are believed to be 
continuously reincarnated to take up their positions anew.

Often there is more than one candidate competing to be recognised as the 
actual reincarnation, and the authority to decide who is the true claimant 
carries significant power.

This is especially true in the case of the Panchen Lama, the second-most 
influential figure in Tibetan Buddhism behind the Dalai Lama.

Chinese authorities detained the Dalai Lama's choice as the Panchen Lama 
in 1995 when the boy was six years old, and he has not been seen in public 
since.

The Chinese government's choice as the Panchen Lama has meanwhile been 
paraded around the country in recent years to promote China's rule over 
his homeland.

China sent troops in to "liberate" Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama later 
fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and established a 
government-in-exile in Dharamsala.