Abstracts of The Present Dalai Lama and Geopolitics 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.