China Caught Off Guard As Dalai Lama Names US-Born Boy Third Highest Leader In Buddhism

Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader and the highest leader of Tibetan Buddhism, in a surprise move for China, has announced the reincarnation of the third most senior Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, reported The Hindustan Times.

Dalai Lama in a ceremony at Dharamshala, in the presence of some 600 Mongolians, anointed “Tenth Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche,” as the Head of the Gelugpa school in Mongolia and the third most senior spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

This anointment is likely to further strain the already tense relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the 14th Dalai Lama, given that the Chinese were once again taken by surprise.

Earlier, in 1995, His Holiness Dalai Lama, had announced a six-year-old boy — Gedhun Choekyi Nyima — the reincarnation of Panchen Lama, without any consultation with the CPC, as well.

Three days later, Nyima disappeared and has not been seen since then.

This incident has been part of a long-standing tussle by the CPC to wrest control of the power of the anointing of Lama in its hands, instead of the traditional practice of searching for Lama using signs like, where the Lama was seeing just before his death or which direction the smoke was flowing just after his death.

Based on these signs, search parties are sent to find children born on the same date as Lama's death and are put through a test, until the right one is found.

Since this practice is impossible to implement after the annexation of Tibet by the Chinese in 1959, the CPC has passed a law where only the Chinese government approves the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

The anointing ceremony at Dharamshala, according to the HT report, was attended by the Abbot of the monastery and various prominent Lamas of Mongolia.

This ceremony is the culmination of an exercise that the Dalai Lama put into motion when he visited Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia in 2016.

The Tenth Khalkha, according to the report is one of the twin boys named Aguidau and Achiltai Attanmar born in US, belonging to the richest business and political empires in Ulan Bator.

The identity of the Tenth Khalkha is kept secret due to the fear of the Chinese targeting the new Tenth Khalkha like the Panchen Lama.