...CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY CONTROLS REINCARNATION !

New Legal Measures Assert Unprecedented Control Over Tibetan Buddhist Reincarnation

(International Campaign for Tibet)

The Chinese government State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) issued legal measures on July 18, 2007, that if fully implemented could transform Tibetan Buddhism as it exists in China into a less substantial, more completely state-managed institution, and further isolate Tibetan Buddhist communities from their counterparts outside China. The "Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism" (MMR) (Web site of the SARA (in Chinese), 18 July 07) take effect on September 1. The MMR (ICT translation) would empower the Chinese Communist Party and government to gradually reshape Tibetan Buddhism by controlling one of the religion’s most unique and important features—lineages of teachers that Tibetan Buddhists believe are reincarnations and that can span centuries. As elderly reincarnations pass away, the measures authorize government officials to decide whether or not a reincarnation is eligible to reincarnate, and if one is permitted, the government will supervise the search for the subsequent reincarnation, as well as religious education and training.

An August 3 SARA statement (Xinhua, reprinted in People’s Daily) describes the government objective as "an important move to institutionalize management on reincarnation of living Buddhas." A SARA official summarized political requirements of a reincarnation under Article 2 of the MMR: "The selection of reincarnates must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups and the selection process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country." The remark refers to the Dalai Lama and other high-ranking Tibetan Buddhist teachers living in exile in India and elsewhere. This provision underscores how the MMR will further subordinate traditional Tibetan Buddhism to Party policy, and heighten the barrier between Tibetan Buddhists in China and their teachers and co-religionists living abroad.

The MMR establishes or expands government procedural control of the principal stages of identifying and educating reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist teachers, including:

• Determining whether or not a reincarnated teacher who passes away may be reincarnated again, and whether a monastery is entitled to have a reincarnated teacher in residence (Arts. 3-4).
• Conducting a search for a reincarnation (Arts. 5-7).
• Recognizing a reincarnation and obtaining government approval of the recognition (Arts. 4, 7-9).
• Seating (installing) a reincarnation in a monastery (Art. 10).
• Providing education and religious training for a reincarnation (Art. 12).