Abstracts of the Buddhist World in Asia and Beyond 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.