The Living Communist Buddhas

The Chinese Panchen Lama

Soon after the name of the new elected Tibetan Prime Minister was announced and as Lobsang Sangay pledged to be more active on the Tibetan front, the Communist government in Beijing once more demonstrated how hard it works to prepare the post-Dalai Lama era.
One of the modus operandi of the Communist regime is to flood the media with information showing that the Communist Party is a great supporter of ‘pure’ Buddhism.
Of course, ‘pure’ means, a Buddhism non-contaminated by what China calls the ‘Dalai’s Clique’.
The Communist government, through the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) has awarded certificates of ‘Living Buddhas’ (or reincarnated lamas or tulkus) to over 1,300 chosen individuals.

I have already written about Fake Lamas, Communist Lamas.

The biographical details of these Living Communist Buddhas should help the followers of Buddhism in the Mainland to check their authenticity, says Xinhua.
A few months ago, the BAC had released a first list of 870 ‘selected’ ones.
At that time, the BAC had argued that the growing number of frauds was a problem as a number of 'fake lamas' were trying to cheat the Buddhist followers.
The list was intended to tackle this issue.
However the main purpose of the exercise is obviously to keep the Dalai Lama and other high lamas in exile, out of the ‘holy’ list.
Xinhua says that the biographical information of the second batch of 441 Rinpoches “brings the publication of the information of Rinpoches in China almost to an end.”
The Dalai Lama did not make it.
According to Xinhua, it is “a concrete step to implement the guidelines of the national conference on the work of religions held recently.”
The Guidelines say that it is the Party who decides who is a reincarnation and who is not.
Since then the list is online at:

www.chinabuddhism.com.cn,
www.sara.gov.cn
and www.tibet.cn,

According to the BAC, these sites receive an average of 98,000 hits per day.
It shows that China is interested by Buddhism. Isn’t it?
China Tibet Online asserted that the publication of the list will safeguard “the rights and interests of Tibetan Buddhists and also increased public understanding about living Buddhas.”
The 441 lucky new entrants are mainly from Sichuan Province, while the first 870 were from Tibet, Yunnan, Gansu, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Liaoning.
China Tibet Online noted that the publication brought about strong repercussions in religious circles. It quoted Drukhang Thubtan Khedrup, the BAC Vice Chairman saying that: “it helps promote the understanding of the public on Tibetan Buddhism and rinpoches.”
Interestingly the BAC pledged that no major adjustment will be made on this inquiry system in the future: “only the information of the newly reincarnated and deceased Rinpoches will be updated to make the information of every true Rinpoche known to the public.”
Beijing will probably be the first to enter the name and details of the 15th Dalai Lama; it will obviously be Beijing’s own choice …a reincarnation with Chinese characteristics.
Let us hope that Dharamsala will react and publish a White Paper on the issue.