A state that once burned scriptures in the courtyard of the Jokhang Temple now claims to be the guardian of Tibetan Buddhist rituals. That is the absurdity behind the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts to control the next Dalai Lama. On July 2, 2025, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama affirmed that his institution would continue and that the Gaden Phodrang Trust would be the only authority to identify and recognise his reincarnation.
The same day, Beijing reiterated that the identification must take place within the “domestic search” in China and be endorsed by the central government. In August, Gama Cedain, deputy secretary of the Party committee in Tibet, stated that Beijing has the “indisputable final say.” The track record of the People’s Republic of China on traditions shows what exactly that claim is worth.
Mao’s attack on culture & memory
Mao began his “Cultural Revolution” in May 1966 with a campaign to destroy the 'Four Olds': old ideas, culture, customs, and habits. The aim was to break down all of the ties Chinese people had to their past. It was a deliberate assault on everything that tied the people of China to their past. On August 5, 1966, Bian Zhongyun, vice-principal of a girls' school in Beijing, was beaten to death by her own pupils. Within weeks, Party activists and militias in Daxing on the edge of the capital killed 325 people branded as “class enemies”, the youngest a baby of one month. Confucian temples were torn down, books were burned, and traditional dress was treated as a crime.
Destruction in Tibet was the worst. In 1966, the Red Guards raided the Jokhang, the holiest shrine in all of Tibet. They destroyed centuries-old murals and throned texts in the courtyard. One of the invaluable artefacts lost was that of a sacred Avalokiteshvara statue from the 7th century. Ganden Monastery, established in 1409 by Tsongkhapa, was completely razed. Prayer and all religious activities were banned. The 10th Panchen Lama, in a letter to the Chinese Communist Party leadership in 1965, estimated that out of the 2,500 monasteries, only around 70 were left standing, and the monastic population of around 110,000 had decreased to around 7,000.
The CCP right now is committing widespread atrocities in Tibet. The “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” is the PRC’s latest attempt to Sinicise the Tibetan population, but at the same time, they present themselves as some sort of defenders of Buddhist customs. They go to the birthplace of Confucius to claim the Communist Party is the successor to China’s ancient culture. The hypocrisy of their actions should be glaringly obvious.
The Urn without its meaning
Beijing cites the urn introduced by the Qianlong Emperor in 1792 and 1793 to claim that emperors always had a say in the selection of the Dalai Lamas. History shows Qianlong concocted the scheme to lessen inner-circle struggles and intrigues in Lhasa. That is all the urn did. It provided the framework for a religious understanding between the Dalai Lama and the Emperor—a compromise which was accepted by both sides, and which ended with the downfall of the Qing.
The urn was applied unevenly by the emperors themselves. The Ninth Dalai Lama was identified in 1808 without the urn, and the Thirteenth in 1879 was also exempted from it. Where it was applied, in the cases of the Tenth to the Twelfth, the final selection was made through divination, oracles, and the judgement of senior Lamas; hence, the role of the urn was largely ceremonial. The present Dalai Lama was identified through the visions of Lhamo Latso and the State Oracle, and not through any lottery.
The Communist Party has, for public show, embraced the external aspect of religiosity while rejecting the internal. The 2007 Measures on the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas stipulate that the state governs when and where reincarnations occur and keeps a registry of those who may reincarnate. Loyalty to the Party and patriotism are added to the education of the youthful incarnations. An atheist party has assumed the role of a licensing authority for the rebirth of the next Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama once humorously suggested that the Communist Party of China might first recognise the reincarnations of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
Tibetans have seen the consequences of this process. In 1995, the six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, recognised as the Eleventh Panchen Lama, vanished with his family into state custody. The leader of the search party, Chadrel Rinpoche, spent six years in state custody. In the boy’s place, the Chinese government recognised Gyaltsen Norbu, the son of two Communist Party members. This fake Panchen Lama is right now extending the cultural erasure of the CCP in occupied Tibet. He recently commented on how Tibetans must be thankful and has asked Tibetans to support China's Communist Party rule. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the rightfully recognised Eleventh Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, have not been made public since 1995.
Control the Dalai Lama, control the people
This has nothing to do with religion. For Beijing, a Party-speaking Dalai Lama would mean absolute control over Tibet, as it knows that devotion to this institution is impossible to fabricate among Tibetans. Down to the household level, this devotion is policed by Party cadres. To ensure total control, families are bound into small units of mutual surveillance. Since 2022, monks and nuns have been indoctrinated with the "Three Consciousnesses" of nation, citizenship, and law. This month, a former abbot of Golog Monastery was sentenced to five years for possession of Dalai Lama photos and audio recordings.
It is common knowledge that a Dalai Lama appointed by Beijing would endorse Party rule over all Tibetans. All Tibetans, regardless of where they live—i.e. in India, Nepal, Europe, and North America—would be compelled to accept a puppet Dalai Lama appointed by Beijing. When the time comes, China will exert its pressure on Nepal, Mongolia, and Bhutan to endorse Beijing’s candidate. Its goal is to use the only thing Tibetans abroad can wholeheartedly agree on to divide them.
To counter this CCP hijack of religion and people, a response is required. In July 2025, India’s Minister Kiren Rijiju said that no one has the right to decide who succeeds the 14th Dalai Lama, and New Delhi should adopt this position. Washington has already recommended that Beijing should not interfere in the reincarnation process of the next Dalai Lama. It is time that all democratic nations of the world state explicitly that they will not recognise any Dalai Lama chosen by the Chinese state and demand proof of life of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
The Central Tibetan Administration has a special burden. The democratic institutions built in exile have proven that the continuity of the Tibetan people does not require Beijing’s permission. At the recent Forum 2000 conference in Prague, Sikyong Penpa Tsering said that the mandate belongs solely to the Gaden Phodrang Trust. This needs to be communicated to parliaments across the world. When the time comes, the world should be prepared to reject a counterfeit head appointed by Beijing.
This message is the same for Tibetans all across the world. A party that burned your scriptures has no right to speak for your faith. The next Dalai Lama will be chosen in the same way as his predecessors by the Tibetan people, through the guidance of the Tibetan way, and in freedom.
(The author is the Director, Red Lantern Analytica Foundation)
(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.)
