China Slams Dalai Lama's Views on Reincarnation

The Dalai Lama has said he could be the last of his kind, and China's governor of Tibet doesn't take kindly to the suggestion, Reuters reports. "I think that, in fact, he is profaning religion and Tibetan Buddhism," Padma Choling says. According to Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is reincarnated within a child after the leader dies. China says the next Dalai Lama must meet with official approval, but the current Dalai Lama says the decision can't be made based on politics—and that he might not be reincarnated. "If he says no reincarnation, then no reincarnation? Impossible. Nobody in Tibetan Buddhism would agree to that," Choling notes. "We must respect history—respect and not profane Tibetan Buddhism."

The governor also points to the current spiritual leader's history. "If the central government had not approved it, how could he have become the 14th Dalai Lama? He couldn't. It has a serious procedure," he says. The matter is "not up to the Dalai Lama," Chinese state news quotes Choling as saying, per India Today. "The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should follow strict historical conventions and required religious rituals of the Tibetan Buddhism and should also be approved by the central government." The Dalai Lama says he will take a formal stand on the issue in a decade, when he turns 90, India Today reports. (More China stories.)