AMRITSAR, India — The Dalai Lama said Tuesday that the Tibetan people will vote on a new system of leadership before he dies, as Tibetan Buddhists grapple with ways to prevent their spiritual leaders from falling under Chinese control.
China has ruled the Himalayan nation of Tibet with a heavy hand since its Communist-led forces invaded in 1951, and for decades, the Dalai Lama has personified Tibetans’ struggle for self-determination.
But fears that China will appoint a new Dalai Lama after his death have led Tibetan leaders to contemplate ideas that break with the centuries-old system of choosing their spiritual leader — including doing away with Dalai Lamas or naming a successor before the current leader dies.
China, which accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking independence for Tibet, angrily condemned the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s proposal as a subversion of Buddhist tradition.
But the Tibetan spiritual leader said it was up to the Tibetan people to decide.
“If people feel that the institution of the Dalai Lama is still necessary, it will continue,” he said in an interview with a small group of reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of world religious leaders in this northern Indian city.
The Dalai Lama said a referendum would be held among all traditional Tibetan Buddhists along the Himalayan range, including China, Nepal and India and into Mongolia, to determine what kind of leadership they want after his death.
“When my physical condition becomes weak, and there are serious preparations for death, then this event should happen,” said the 72-year-old, adding “according to my regular medical checkup, I am good for another few decades.”
It was not immediately clear how such a vote would take place, particularly in areas under Chinese rule where even the Dalai Lama’s portrait is banned.
In August, Beijing moved to tighten its grip over Tibetan Buddhism by asserting the officially atheistic Communist government’s sole right to recognize Buddhist reincarnations of the lamas that form the backbone of the religion’s clergy.
