They have been getting ready for that for the final 15 years,” he said.

Kolkata:

China is expected to interfere in the succession of the Dalai Lama, and anticipating that eventuality, the Tibetan government-in-exile has worked out a plan for a democratic transition of the leadership role by the spiritual .

In an interview to PTI, President of the Tibetan government-in-exile Penpa Tsering pointed out that a replay of the 1995 appointment of a rival Panchen Lama by the Communist government of China while a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as the incarnate of the Lama was whisked away from the public eye, can be expected.

“What occurs after the current Dalai Lama is not any extra, is an enormous problem for the Tibetans, particularly if the Sino-Tibetan battle just isn’t resolved,” he said on Tuesday.

“We consider China will certainly intrude with the succession strategy of the Dalai Lama… They have been getting ready for that for the final 15 years,” he added.

Tsering, who also holds the title of Sikyong, stated that the Chinese government issued a “diktat” in 2007 on the need for it to be involved in the succession of all reincarnate Lamas.

“This was completed, aiming at utilizing faith as a political instrument… (Even) although China shouldn’t have any function nor every other authorities,” he said.

“They (Chinese) intervened in 1995 once they selected a boy (Gyancain Norbu) because the Panchen Lama. The boy recognised by His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) as Panchen Lama (Gedhun Choeyi Nyima) was whisked away and we nonetheless haven’t any information of whether or not he’s alive,” he said.

Nyima has not been seen by any independent observer since May 17, 1995. While the Chinese government claims he lives a “regular” life, Tibetan exiles and human rights groups believe that he is being held at a “Chinese gulag as a prisoner of conscience”.

Tibetan Buddhists believe that the soul of a high Lama or “dwelling Buddha” after his death may be reborn as “soul boy” and can be found through the interpretation of arcane signs.

“Communist China professes to not consider in faith, but it desires to intrude in what’s a purely a non secular perform,” rued Tsering, adding that the Dalai Lama in jest has said that if the “Chinese authorities is so concerned about re-incarnation, it ought to examine Tibetan Buddhism”.

To prepare the world and Tibetans for the day when the 14th Dalai Lama passes away, a six-point plan has been prepared. The cornerstone of the plan, Tsering said, is a democratic transition.

While the religious leadership remains with the Dalai Lama, since 2011, the political leadership of the Tibetan community has devolved on the directly elected Sikyong or president of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Till then, the temporal head of the Tibetan government-in-exile elected by the ‘Kashag’ or parliament-in-exile was ‘Kalon Tripa’ or prime minister with the Dalai Lama as the overall head.

A popular uprising in 1959 against the Chinese who had invaded Tibet in 1950, which was bloodily put down killing thousands of civilians, saw the Dalai Lama and many of his followers fleeing to India. A year after that, the Dalai Lama established a democratically-elected parliament.

“The Dalai Lama who was influenced by Indian democracy, which he noticed for the primary time throughout a go to in 1956-57, has been getting ready us for a democratic future,” Tsering said. The Tibetan leader said the Dalai Lama found that while India’s democratically functioning Parliament allowed people to speak freely, the Chinese apex legislature of which he was a high official was a place where none could speak their mind, prompting him to adopt democracy in running the affairs of the Tibetan exiles.

“That is why I, a farmer’s son, have been capable of tackle the mantle of the Tibetan political chief… We will carry ahead democratically,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)