There's no reincarnation in communism
"No one outside Tibet knows exactly what is going on there right now..." says James Fallows, blogging from Beijing. And he adds, "in case observers outside China are in any doubt: This is potentially big, big, very consequential news." Indeed. But this was bound to blow up in China's face. Let's walk back the recent history.
In 1995, a group of Tibetan monks chose a boy named Gedhun Choekyi Nyiama as the next Panchen Lama. The Chinese, however, arrested him and he remains in custody. They then came up with their very own Panchen Lama, a boy named Gyaltsen Norbu, who is now 18. The Chinese endgame here is clear: by controlling the Panchem Lama they think they've got a lock on the naming of the next Dali Lama.
But that's the thing with totalitarians; they make no allowances for that which cannot be embraced by their five-year plans. Tibetan Buddhists believe in reincarnation, not Marxist-Leninist mumbojumbo. A lama's supporters must want him to reappear and they believe that the next Dali Lama will be reincarnated in a place familiar to his previous incarnation. That's what Beijing is up against. The communists are determined and devious, however. Last August, they claimed exclusive rights to the selection of all future reincarnations of Tibetan lamas and they even had the nerve to declare that Dali Lama must be a citizen of China from now on.
Tibetan Buddhism is far more durable than Chinese Communism, though, and you can be sure that the Dali Lama has a few tricks up his sleeve. The one thing that the Chinese really fear is that he might select his own reincarnation. But enough of the metaphysics. With Darfur and now Tibet, the Chinese are starting to look rather ugly in their drive for resources and territory. Soon, perhaps, Bianca Jagger, Neil Young, Brian De Palma, the Dixie Chicks and all the other celebrity "defenders" of liberty might even begin to criticize them for their "imperialism". Probably not, though. They're all too busy surging against Bush. Sad creatures.
