Abr 09, 2017
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said Saturday that the Tibetan people should decide whether they want to continue their institution, adding that he wants to call a meeting of monks this year to begin discussing his succession..
China, that considers the Nobel Peace Prize winner a dangerous separatist, says tradition must continue and that its officially atheist communist leaders have the right to approve the Dalai Lama's successor, as a legacy inherited from the Chinese emperors.
“Whether this institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not, It depends on the Tibetan people.”, The Dalai Lama said at a press conference in Tawang City., in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, in northeast India, near the border with China.
"That's why, consult the people, if people feel that this institution is no longer relevant, then this institution will automatically cease”, commented the monk of 82 years, who added that this year he wants to start “some kind of preliminary discussion” about his succession.
A final decision on what happens to the institution should be made when he is close to the 90 years, said the Dalai Lama.
Tibetan Buddhism holds that the soul of a lama, the Buddhist monk, of high hierarchy is reincarnated in the body of a child at the moment of his death.
The Dalái Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese domination in 1959, He denies that he supports violence and affirms that he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet. The spiritual leader renounced playing any political role in the leadership of the Tibetan diaspora.
