Himalayan people will never accept the Chinese candidate for the 14th Dalai Lama's successor, the Indian Himalayan council of the Nalanda Buddhist Tradition (IHCNBT) said in the first such resolution passed on Tuesday.
Founded in 2018, the Delhi-based IHCNBT represents the entire Himalayan states ranging from Tawang to Ladakh and Nalanda Buddhism.
“If the government of the People's Republic of China, for political ends, chooses a candidate for the Dalai Lama, the people of the Himalayas will never accept it, never pay devotional obeisance to such a political appointee, and publicly denounce such moves by anyone,” Maling Gombu, General Secretary of the IHCNBT, said.
The organization, which held its second governing council meeting in New Delhi, believes that the traditional process of recognizing the reincarnation of the Dalai Lamas is a deeply religious, cultural matter.
Beijing has maintained that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation must be approved by the Chinese government, and the selection has to be based on a combination of not just “historical rules”, but also modern Chinese laws.
As such, China's 2007 State Administration for Religious Affairs Regulation excludes "any foreign organization or individual" from the process of reincarnation selection.
China enacted the New Regulations on Religious Affairs and the Rules on the Management of Reincarnation of Tibetan Living Buddhas separately in 2007 and 2018.