The Ladakh Buddhist Association backed an Indian Buddhist organisation on Tuesday when they passed a resolution calling for no interference when it comes to the succession of the 14th Dalai Lama and the appointment of the next.

The Indian Himalayan Council of the Nalanda Buddhist Tradition (IHCNBT) in a resolution said, “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 move by anyone.”

The one-page resolution said, “System of recognizing reincarnated spiritual beings is a religious practice unique to Nalanda Buddhism and the philosophy of the principle of life after death.”

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“No government or any individual has the right to interfere in this matter,” it added.

The resolution pointed out that the sole authority on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is Gaden Phodang’s institution.

No one, including China, should interfere with such a holy and devotional process, it read.

It is notable that China’s communist government could interfere in the tradition and might appoint its own Dalai Lama, which makes the resolution passed on Tuesday at the 2nd governing council meeting of the organisation even more important.

When asked about Beijing’s keenness to appoint the next Dalai Lama, the vice president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association, Tsering Dorjay, told India Today TV, “The Dalai Lama is the supreme spiritual leader of all the Buddhists, not only in the Himalayan region but in other countries. He has said the birth of the new Lama will neither be in China nor in Chinese-controlled Tibet. So it is his holiness who will decide it and the Chinese Communist Party is not any religious party to decide about our faith.”

The vice president of the organisation, Venerable Chuchep Choedan, highlighted that “China is preparing a lot of things to take over the agenda”.

“For us, Himalayan Buddhists, His Holiness, his institution, and the continuation of this institution is a very important point. His Holiness is very strongly connected to the Himalayan region,” he said.

The General Secretary of the council, Maling Gombo, said, “The issue of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is a purely religious and cultural issue. No other authority has any role to interfere in the process”.

Unlike China, the Indian government so far has never made a comment on the appointment of the next Dalai Lama.

IHCNBT was formed in 2018 and has the top Buddhist leadership of the Indian union territory of Ladakh and other states.
The name of the organisation was given by the Dalai Lama.

The Ladakh Buddhist Association has also urged India to allow nomads in pastures near the Line of Actual Control as it alleged that the Chinese are backing their nomads on the LAC on our land, while our forces don’t even allow our nomads in their own territory. (Source: India Today)