Origin from 2007
Administrative measures issued by China's State Administration for Religious Affairs, in force since 2007, requiring state approval before a reincarnate lama, a tulku, may be recognised, and forbidding unauthorised or foreign involvement in the recognition process. Its authority over the succession to particular lineages, including the Dalai Lama's own, is rejected by the Tibetan religious authorities in exile, and no body holds jurisdiction over both parties. The atlas records the measures as in force in China and the dispute over their legitimacy as unresolved.
Facts
Origins
Language of CompositionSourced to the subject's own accountChinese; the atlas cites the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's published English translation of the original order. 1 Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own account Disputed
Legal ChallengeSourced to the subject's own accountIts authority over the succession to particular lineages is rejected by the Tibetan religious authorities in exile, and no body has jurisdiction over both parties. The atlas records the dispute and does not resolve it. 1 Learn More
What the Measures Require
A tulku, rendered in Chinese as a living Buddha, is a recognised reincarnation of a previous teacher, and the institution has organised authority in Tibetan Buddhism since the thirteenth century. Recognition has traditionally been made by senior lamas of the relevant lineage, using dreams, oracles, tests with the predecessor's possessions and, at times since the eighteenth century, a lottery from a golden urn introduced under the Qing.
The 2007 measures put the process under administrative control. Reincarnation must not violate state law or public interest, and must respect the religious rituals and historical conventions of Tibetan Buddhism. The monastery seeking a reincarnation must be a registered site for religious activity and must be one that historically carried the lineage. An application is filed with the provincial or autonomous region religious affairs department; where the influence of the figure is great the State Council decides. Approval is required before a search may begin, and unauthorised searching or recognition is prohibited.
Two clauses are the substance of the instrument. Reincarnation is stated not to be subject to interference or control by any foreign organisation or individual. And no group or individual may without authorisation carry out reincarnation related activity. Together they place the identification of a religious successor within the gift of the state that issues the permit.
A Question With No Common Forum
The measures are law within the jurisdiction that made them, and their application to the succession of particular lineages is contested outside it.
The most consequential precedent predates the order. In 1995 the Dalai Lama recognised a boy as the eleventh Panchen Lama; the Chinese authorities rejected the recognition, the child and his family were taken into custody, and a different boy was installed following a golden urn procedure. The recognised child has not been seen publicly since, and the two claimants to the office have coexisted for three decades. The 2007 measures put that procedure on a general legal footing.
The Dalai Lama has stated on several occasions that the question of whether the institution continues, and by what method a successor would be identified, rests with him and with the Tibetan people, and he has said that any candidate chosen for political ends should not be recognised. The Chinese authorities maintain that the succession requires their approval under the order and under Qing precedent.
There is no shared forum. One party holds the territory, the monasteries and the registration power; the other holds the lineage authority recognised by most Tibetan Buddhists outside that territory. The atlas records the instrument, its terms and its date, notes that its authority over particular lineages is disputed, and does not adjudicate a live question about a living person's office.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Rejected Here
Gelug, Denominations The office of the Dalai Lama has stated that the recognition of a successor rests with the institutions of the tradition and not with a state administration.
Karma Kagyu, Denominations The school has its own unresolved dispute over the recognition of its head, and the state's claim to approve such recognitions is refused on the same ground as elsewhere in the tradition.
The order makes state approval a condition of recognising a reincarnate teacher, which the Tibetan tradition holds to be a religious determination no government can make.
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