Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism and the Institution of the Dalai Lama

Two-Day Conference

Thursday, November 14th – Friday, November 15th, 2024
Belfer Case Study Room (S020), CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street

Reincarnation recognition began in the 13th century as a distinctive practice in Tibetan Buddhism to ensure continuity in spiritual authority across successive lives of religious masters. Over time such recognized reincarnations took on significant temporal power as well, particularly the line of the Dalai Lamas who were instrumental in the formation of the Tibetan Ganden Phodrang government in the 17th century. This conference will look at the history across the region, the esoteric practices of rebirth and divination, and the modern-day geopolitical implications of the continuation of this practice in Tibetan, Himalayan, Mongolian, and Central Asian communities -- and indeed across the Buddhist world in Asia and beyond.

Day 1: Thursday, November 14, 2024 | 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. 

4:00 p.m. Opening and Introductions
Michael Puett, Harvard University
Janet Gyatso, Harvard University 

5:00 p.m. Reception
Concourse, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street

Day 2: Friday, November 15, 2024 | 8:15 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 

8:15 - 9:00 a.m. Breakfast
Concourse, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street

9:00 - 9:15 a.m. Welcome
Mark Wu, Harvard University 

9:15-11:15 a.m.
Panel 1: Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism and Beyond 
Moderator: Michael Szonyi, Harvard University
Panelists: 
Weirong Shen, Tsinghua University
Bodhisattvas in Saṃsāra: The Avalokiteśvara Cult and the Reincarnation of Tibetan Lamas
The initial formation of the reincarnation system in Tibetan Buddhism was closely connected to the Avalokiteśvara Cult. Most reincarnated lamas are thought to be reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, prime among them being those of the Dalai Lama and the Karma pas. The concept of reincarnation was not based on the Mahayana theory of three bodies of the Buddha (Trikāya), but rather on the ideal of the Bodhisattva; likewise, Sprul sku does not refer to the Nirmāṇakāya of the Buddha, but rather to the incarnation of Bodhisattva. Furthermore, the system of the Union of State and Religion in Tibetan Buddhism was developed using the Avalokiteśvara ideal as a foundation as well. The time has come to remove the political burden from the shoulders of the living Buddhas [Bodhisattvas] and restore unto them the religious significance they once possessed, so as to free all living Buddhas from the Saṃsāra within which they are presently trapped. 

Tengyur Rinpoche, Thubten Shedrubling Foundation
The History of Reincarnated Lamas in Tibet

Tawni Tidwell, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers  for the Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State
In March 2021, the Tukdam Study, guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and scientifically led by neuroscientist Richard Davidson and Center for Healthy Minds since 2013, had its longest case—a senior Buddhist practitioner who remained in the post-death meditative state called tukdam (thugs dam) for 37 days. His body remained supple and radiant with marked resistance to the decomposition process. Both Tibetan medical and biomedical systems rely on indicators from each tradition’s respective ontological paradigms and epistemic diagnostic instruments to guide treatments for alleviating disease and suffering. These same lenses determine specific progressions during the dying process and confirm the final transition to death. Euroamerican biomedical and research communities increasingly rely on biomarkers that index function and dysfunction that, at the time of death, focus on brain stem, heart and lung parameters to demarcate end of life. Tibetan medical physicians and Buddhist adepts, on the other hand, rely on perceptual and inferential markers derived from the pramāṇic tradition, assessing the validity of evidence largely gained through perceptual means, to determine when a consciousness releases from a dying body and how specific markers might indicate nuanced attainments in that state. 

In other contemporary research collaborations with Tibetan medical physicians, Buddhist monastics and biomedical researchers, Euroamerican epistemologies and modes of inquiry have dominated, resulting in relegating traditional modes of inquiry, such as indirect evidence (rjes dpag) and direct perceptual evidence (mgon sum), to largely theoretical bystanders. This paper presents the two longest cases from the collaborative Tukdam Study whereby this state provides a particular ontological frame investigated jointly by the two distinct intellectual traditions—the Tibetan Buddhist and medical tradition on one hand and the Euroamerican biomedical and scientific tradition on the other—using their respective means of inquiry. Through the investigation, the traditions enact two paradigms of the body at the time of death alongside attendant conceptualizations of what constitutes life itself. This paper examines when epistemologies of these two traditions might converge, under what ontological contexts, and through which correlated indicators of evidence. In doing so, this work explores how these two intellectual traditions might answer how the time course and characteristics of physiological changes during the postmortem period might exhibit variation across individuals and in what ways this state probes a biocultural nexus of life suspended in death.

It explores the breadth and diversity of perceptual signs such as radiance (mdangs), heat (drod) and posture (bzhugs stangs) alongside biomarkers such as EEG-measured brain activity, oximetry and microbiotic changes; and posits the possibility for discourse by forging epistemic bridges, even for supramundane signs such as ringsel (ring bsrel) and kü-düng (sku gdungs) relics. This paper applies a biocultural lens to assess how competing epistemologies and ontologies frame the investigative object simultaneously as a dying person, a moment of awakening and a bardo transition state amidst reincarnatory processes from life to death to luminosity. 

Sangseraima Ujeed, University of Michigan
The Ocean Lama: The Dalai Lamas of the Mongols
Throughout history, since the very conception of the title Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama was and remains as much a part of the cultural heritage of the Mongols as he is of the Tibetans. The story of the Dalai Lamas is an amalgamated history that began as a result of complex religio-political collaborations between the Tibetans and the Mongols. When it comes to the origin of the Dalai Lamas, the 1578 meeting between Altan Khan (1507–1582) and Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) is often celebrated as the moment the latter metamorphosized into the Dalai Lama, the first to carry the title. Van der Kuijp asserted that the origin of the Dalai Lama institution is closely connected to the “invention of tradition” and coined the Dalai Lamas as “Altan Khan’s legacy” (Van der Kujip 2013,336). This perspective sets the scene for this paper which investigates origin of the relationship between the Dalai Lamas and the Mongols. Emphasis will be given to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the events that occurred during this period led to the birth of the Dalai Lama lineage and the translocalization of the Gelug school across the Himalayas, Inner Asia, and Qing China. By investigating the symbiotic relationships between the Dalai Lamas and the Mongols, this chapter will tell the Dalai Lama story from the Mongol perspective and will highlight the Mongolian participation in the historical events that led to the creation of the lineage and institution of the Dalai Lamas. 

Nicole Willock, Old Dominion University
Authenticity and Authority: Methodological Pathways for Understanding the Tulku Institution
In this era of information overload what methodological pathways are available to researchers to understand key aspects of the tulku institution? This paper reflects on recent technological shifts in the academic landscape to examine issues of authenticity and authority in the tulku institution within Tibetan Buddhism. By pairing Tibetan-language texts with different analytical lenses—critical theory, digital humanities, and AI ethics, this paper raises questions on how new methodological pathways have opened and closed, and how new shortcuts and pitfalls have emerged with these new technologies.

11:15-11:30 a.m. Break 

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Panel 2: Ganden Phodrang, Regents, and Succession
Moderator: Janet Gyatso, Harvard University
Panelists:
Martin Mills, University of Aberdeen
The Ganden Podrang: Sovereignty and Succession Under the Dalai Lamas
The Ganden Podrang, founded during the lifetime of the Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso (1475–1542) as the enduring patrimonial estate of the Dalai Lama reincarnation lineage, has transformed several times several times during its long history. Originally the personal estate of the First to the Fourth Dalai Lamas, it became the foundation and seat of government from Lhasa under the Fifth Dalai Lama until 1959, whereupon it continued as the centre of the exiled administration in Dharamsala. In 2011, the resignation of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama from political activities meant that the Ganden Podrang returned to a smaller, trust-holding estate closer in nature to its original form under the Second Dalai Lama.  The transformational history of the Ganden Podrang estate gives us insight into the Dalai Lama lineage as a legal and constitutional form. In particular, the historical continuity of the Ganden Podrang as an object of inheritance is centred on the Dalai Lama as a distinct and individual person rather than as an office (as applies to the American President or the British Prime Minister), but. In this regard, the Ganden Podrang estate is (and remained throughout its history) a personal possession, whose inheritance is overseen by those personally close to the Dalai Lama. In the Tibetan context, such relations are primarily understood in karmic terms spanning multiple lifetimes, including relations with other incarnate lineages such as the Panchen Lamas and deities such as Pehar and Palden Lhamo. In each of these cases, the relationship is not a formal constitutional one bound by laws, doctrinal regulations or cosmology, but by personal relations of friendship, tutelage, protection and care. Historically, it is these personal relations with the Dalai Lamas that are drawn upon to secure the reincarnation recognition process, rather than principles of state authority, bureaucratic administration or ecclesiastical authority.

Cameron Warner, Aarhus University
Tibet’s Regents: A Historical Overview of the Men Tasked with Finding the Dalai Lama
In royal successions around the world, the sovereign may transfer their power to a temporary proxy, the regent. In the case of succession at the death of the sovereign, the regent can retain power until the successor is fully enthroned or until such time as the new sovereign asserts their authority. In Tibetan lineages where the line of succession had been determined by reincarnation, such as the Dalai Lama, the regent sometimes assumed the additional responsibility of overseeing the complex process of locating suitable candidates for the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama. After testing, the regent often manuevered the successful boy through a minefield of political obstacles towards a latter process of tonsure, name-giving, and enthronment. This paper serves as an introduction and historical overview of the men who have been tasked with finding a Dalai Lama and how the role of the regent has evolved over time. The paper will include preliminary thoughts on the future position of the regent given the Dalai Lama's decision in 2011 to devolve political power onto a democratically elected executive.

Hon-Shiang Lau, City University of Hong Kong
Chinese Primary-Source Official Records on ‘Using a Golden Urn to Identify a New Dalai Lama’ Show that the Qing Empire Had No Sovereignty over Tibet
People's Republic of China claims that the Qing Empire controlled the search, identification and education of a reincarnated Dalai Lama, and this reflects Qing-Empire’s sovereignty over Tibet. This paper uses numerous direct quotes from China’s primary-source official records (e.g., 《­QVR》) to prove the opposite, i.e., the Qing Empire had no genuine control over the search/ identification/ education of a new Dalai Lama, which in turn contributes to proving that the Qing Empire never had sovereignty over Tibet. 

1:00-2:00 p.m. Lunch 

2:00-3:30 p.m.
Panel 3: The Present Dalai Lama and Geopolitics
Moderator: William Kirby, Harvard University
Panelists:
Jigme Yeshi, University of Calcutta
Compassion in Praxis - The Life and Legacy of the 14th Dalai Lama
This paper provides an outline of the life and legacy of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. At the outset, it should be mentioned that writing about the legacy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a daunting enterprise due to two reasons. Firstly, the contribution by His Holiness is immense and innumerable. Secondly, His Holiness is still present and will continue to contribute further to his ever-enduring legacy. Thus, a single chapter simply fails to capture his life and legacy in its entirety. Still, for the sake of convenience, this chapter will focus on the principal commitments of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Summed up as the four principal commitments, they capture in essence the legacy of the Dalai Lama. These are, first, cultivation of warm heartedness and human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline. Secondly, he is committed to encouraging harmony among the world’s religious traditions. Thirdly, as a Tibetan and chosen as the Dalai Lama, he is committed to preserving Tibetan language and culture and also speaking for the protection of Tibet’s natural environment. Fourthly is that as a follower of ancient Nalanda tradition, His Holiness is committed to reviving the values of ancient Indian knowledge and its academic incorporation as academic subject in the modern educational institutes. The idea of commitments brings about a notion of a tomorrow where they become the building blocks to create a desired future. Hence, the three principal commitments of His Holiness reflect the far sightedness of the Tibetan spiritual leader, making him into a true visionary. This chapter dwells upon this aspect whereby the Dalai Lama’s activities and the principal commitments have transformed him into a global icon of peace. More importantly, the chapter will reflect how the Dalai Lama’s commitments can be understood as forming the basis of a non-Western decolonial epistemology, which resonates to the ideas of other decolonial thinkers such as Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Gandhi. The non-western decolonial knowledge system that can be derived from the philosophy of the Dalai Lama stems from the Buddhist tradition, especially the importance given to compassion. His principal commitments and the leadership provided by him to the Tibetan movement can be expressed as compassion in praxis. The principal commitments that have emerged from his philosophy brings out an alternative episteme regarding the world, one that is based on compassion, cooperation and harmony. These ideas run counter to the modern consumerist culture of competition and aggression. However, as the chapter shows, His Holiness’ position is not a complete rejection of the modernity emanating from the west. Instead, he has actively sought to build a dialogue between modern western science and Tibetan Buddhism. Similarly, he has remained at the forefront in the creation of harmony among different religious traditions, which will be elaborated in the chapter. This particular commitment of His Holiness has also created strong support and endearing faith from the Himalayan communities towards the Dalai Lama. Finally, the chapter will focus on His Holiness’ services and leadership towards the Tibetan people. It is through his compassion and wisdom that Tibetans in exile have not only survived but have emerged but have emerged as the most successful refugees in the world. The leadership provided by His Holiness to the Tibetans is reflected in the strong and stable institutions such as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and the self-sustaining refugee settlements in South Asia. More importantly, His Holiness’ legacy regarding Tibetans in exile is present in the project of democratization that was initiated by the Tibetan leader since the 1960s. 

Allen Carlson, Cornell University
Who's Next (And Why It Matters So): Reincarnates (Especially the Dalai Lama Lineage, Particularly the 14th, Tenzin Gyatso) and the Coming Crisis in Tibet-China Relations
This paper examines the significance of how the next Dalai Lama will be chosen will have not only for the Tibetans, but also for China and the rest of the world. The first part of the paper argues that the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyasto, has served as a constant lynchpin in Tibet-China relations ever since the founding of the PRC in 1949, and argues then that the manner in which it is decided who will follow him in his lineage is as much an issue of geopolitical import as it is of significance within the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. The second part of the paper pays particular attention to how Beijing’s stance on this issue has evolved since the turn of the century. To telegraph the findings of this section of the paper the Chinese position has both expanded (to cover ever more issues related to the selection process) and hardened (placing ever greater restraints on the process and asserting what would amount to total control over outcomes) over the last two decades. While some attention has been given to this issue in the existing literature, this paper is among the first efforts to make use of both Chinese, English, and some Tibetan, language sources, to tell the fullest possible story of what has occurred and what the future holds in store.

Tenzin Dorjee, Columbia University
Beijing’s Reincarnation Games: Why the Chinese Communist Party Wants the Dalai Lama to be Reborn
A new battle is brewing at the heart of the Sino-Tibetan conflict: the struggle over the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation. In a 2011 statement, the Dalai Lama outlined several possibilities on the question of his succession, ranging from conventional reincarnation to the idea of lineage termination. In recent years he has been more reticent on the topic, downplaying the importance or urgency of the question. In contrast, Beijing has issued multiple statements, released policy directives, and made new laws requiring not only that the Dalai Lama reincarnate but that he do so on Beijing’s terms. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in 2014 declared that “the title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government,” (China Daily, September 11, 2014). This stance has been reiterated several times, including by Zhu Weiqun of the United Front Work Department, who said in 2017 that Beijing must have a decisive role in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process (Global Times, December 10, 2017). The Chinese Communist Party’s sudden enthusiasm for the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is puzzling given its longstanding hostility to religion, and observers have ridiculed the incongruity of an atheist regime participating in the Buddhist reincarnation process. Furthermore, Beijing has long maligned the Dalai Lama as a “criminal” and a “wolf in monk’s robes” who seeks to “split the motherland” (China Daily, March 7, 2011). Chinese leaders have called him a “separatist” and a “terrorist.” Given Beijing’s animosity toward the Tibetan leader, why does the Chinese government want him to reincarnate at all? Why is Beijing seeking to perpetuate an institution it has so persistently vilified? This article argues that the colonial nature of China’s rule over Tibet and the hegemonic nature of its geopolitical ambitions in Asia interact to make the religious institution of the Dalai Lama a valuable asset for Beijing.

3:30-3:45 p.m. Break 

3:45-5:15 p.m.            
Panel 4: Buddhist World in Asia and Beyond 
Moderator: Michael Puett, Harvard University
Panelists:
Lobsang Sangay, Harvard University
Co-opting the Sacred: The Intersection of Atheist Governance and Tibetan Buddhist Spiritual Authority
The Battle for the Soul of the Dalai Lama: To Control Tibet Chinese Communist Ventures Into Spiritual Realm" published in Foreign Affairs (Sangay, 2023), this topic explores how the Chinese Communist Party, despite its atheist foundations, attempts to co-opt Tibetan Buddhist practices, particularly the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, to legitimize its rule and extend political control. The presentation will offer a critical discussion of the implications of this intervention for both Tibetan spiritual traditions and broader religious freedoms across the Buddhist world. 

Josh Rogin, The Washington Post
Prospects of US Tibet Policy in the Next Administration
A new administration in Washington will necessarily bring about a rethink of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific. At the time of this writing, the winner is not known. But if Vice President Harris wins, her administration is likely to pursue broad continuity and seek to maintain stable relations between the United States and China based on the Biden administration’s policy of managed competition. If former President Trump wins, he will likely depart from the Biden administration’s strategy, but in unpredictable ways. U.S. support for Tibet has long enjoyed a bipartisan consensus in the U.S. Congress. But despite the steady pace of related legislation, awareness of and attention to the plight of Tibetans is waning. Neither President Biden nor President Trump met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama while in office, breaking with long tradition. Absent a sustained and organized effort, Tibet could lose visibility in official Washington at the worst possible time. 

Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster
Competing Notions of Sovereignty: Tibet, China, and the Politicizing of Reincarnation   
Reincarnation is fundamental part of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan and Himalayan socio-political world for many centuries. Modern nation-states are based on principles of territoriality and sovereignty, while the principle and practice of reincarnation defies both. Yet, as the Tibet question in contemporary international relations highlights, matters of emanation, reincarnation, and so on go beyond Buddhism and religious scholarship. The talk will analyse the modern incarnation of reincarnation/tulku system both in China-controlled Tibet (proliferation of “living Buddhas”, domestication of the practice to allow only “patriotic” lamas) and in exile. While identifying tensions between sacrality and temporality when in comes to reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism within the wider contexts of China-Tibetan, China-India and China-West relations, the talk will also analyse the (im)possibility of reconciling traditional fluid non-modern ideas (such as reincarnation) with modern secularist ideas and practices of politics and international relations.                               

5:15-5:30 p.m. Closing Acknowledgement 
Rachelle Walsh, Harvard University 

Sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard-Yenching Institute, and Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute.