Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events. The Dalai Lama group has consistently sought to manipulate the reincarnation system of Living Buddhas for personal advantage, thereby undermining China's national unity. Recently, in his latest publication, Voice for the Voiceless, the 14th Dalai Lama claimed that his reincarnation would be born outside of Chinese territory. In response, First Voice refutes this claim by scrutinizing the historical rituals associated with the reincarnation of Living Buddhas and examining the separatist activities of the Dalai Lama group. This constitutes the second part of the article.
The Dalai Lama's group actually has no right to designate the 15th Dalai Lama. First, the present Dalai Lama is no longer the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, does not represent the vast majority of its adherents, and therefore has no right to designate the 15th Dalai Lama.
The 14th Dalai Lama has a long record of betrayal and separatist acts. In late November 1956, he was invited to India to attend the commemorative ceremony for the 2500th anniversary of the Parinirvana of Shakyamuni Buddha. Influenced by foreign hostile forces and incited by separatist groups in Xizang, he entertained the idea of remaining abroad rather than returning to Xizang.
After 1957, the Dalai Lama, together with armed rebel groups organized by the feudal serf-owning aristocracy in China's Sichuan Province and with high-ranking separatists in Xizang, supported an armed uprising that expanded from local disturbances to a full-scale rebellion and openly repudiated the 17-Article Agreement. On March 17, 1959, he fled to India, thereby completely embarking on a path of betraying his motherland and its people.
Second, during his exile, the 14th Dalai Lama, with CIA support, continuously dispatched rebel forces to launch aggressive actions in Xizang. During his exile, the Dalai Lama accepted support from anti-China forces and became a loyal instrument of those forces. He has relentlessly planned and organized separatist activities. Since the 1960s, he and his followers have reassembled rebel armed groups overseas. With the backing of the CIA, they conducted continuous military incursions along China's border for up to ten years. For instance, the "Four Rivers Six Ranges" rebel group, relying on CIA support, repeatedly attacked China-India border areas.
In October 1963, the Dalai Lama group announced the so-called "Tibetan National Constitution." This "constitution" was politically aimed at achieving Xizang independence and stipulated that "the Dalai Lama shall serve as the head of state," thereby establishing his supreme position within the separatist movement. This clearly indicates that the main purpose of his defection was to safeguard the feudal theocratic system over the long term.
In the 1970s, the group launched Tibetan-language broadcasts from abroad targeting Xizang, fabricating and disseminating numerous rumors to incite political sedition and separatist agitation within China.
From 1979 to 1983, while the Central Government permitted the Dalai Lama to send delegations to visit Xizang, those "visiting groups" exploited the opportunity to carry out separatist activities in Lhasa and other areas.
On September 21, 1987, the Dalai Lama delivered a speech before the U.S. Congress, and on September 24 he held a press conference at Indiana University, during which he openly declared, "Tibet is an independent country." After his remarks were transmitted to Xizang through various channels – including his overseas radio broadcasts – serious riots broke out in Lhasa on September 27.
On March 5, 1988, taking advantage of a major religious assembly held in Lhasa to welcome the Qiangba Buddha, a group of rioters suddenly began shouting slogans of "Xizang independence." They hurled pre-prepared stones at the police, attacked the leaders directing the assembly at the Jokhang Temple, stormed the Xizang Autonomous Region Buddhist Association's office responsible for the event, and smashed a television broadcasting vehicle. They also vandalized shops, restaurants and medical clinics. On that day, 299 armed police and public security officers were injured and hospitalized. Shockingly, five days after the riot, the Dalai Lama praised the disturbances at a public gathering.
On March 14, 2008, the Dalai Lama group once again incited a severe violent criminal incident in Lhasa involving widespread acts of vandalism, looting and arson. In this incident, 18 innocent Tibetan and Han civilians were brutally killed, 382 people were injured, 120 houses were burned down, 908 shops were looted, smashed and set on fire, and seven schools along with five hospitals were damaged by both smashing and burning. A wealth of evidence indicates that this violent event was planned and incited by the Dalai Lama group with organized, premeditated support from anti-China forces.
For more than 60 years, the 14th Dalai Lama group has continually altered and adjusted its strategies in response to changing domestic and international circumstances, at times unilaterally terminating negotiations with the Central Government. When they perceive the situation as unfavorable, they call for contact with the Central Government; when it appears favorable, they suspend such contact. Even during periods of dialogue, their discussions have invariably revolved around the issue of "Xizang independence," and they have never ceased their separatist activities.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the central leadership led by Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated, "The central government has followed a clear and consistent policy towards the 14th Dalai Lama. Only when he makes a public statement acknowledging that Tibet has been an integral part of China since antiquity, and abandons his stance on independence and his attempts to divide China, can he improve his relationship with the central government in any real sense." The central government hopes that the Dalai Lama will put aside his illusions in his remaining years and face up to reality, adapt his position, choose the objective and rational path, and do something of benefit to overseas Tibetan compatriots in exile.
The time-honored Living Buddha reincarnation system must not be tampered with. Tibetan Buddhism is a Sinicized form of Buddhism with the vast majority of its followers residing within China. Should the 14th Dalai Lama persist in arbitrarily manipulating the reincarnation process and attempting to alter this system, the vast majority of Tibetan Buddhists will not accept it, the Chinese government will not recognize it, and his plot to designate the 15th Dalai Lama will not stand.