Dalai Lama 'process' unfair to child chosen
Recently the Dalai Lama said, "When I am about 90 I will consult the high lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should
This process of handpicking an infant or boy as the reincarnated successor is inhumane – the child is not given the right to choose and will be deprived of a normal childhood. So often the child is just whisked away to a monastery where he has to spend the rest of his life, luckily or unluckily, as a guru for others to worship.
In 2009, Osel Hita Torres, a Spanish-enthroned lama who was then 24, drew much publicity by telling the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, “They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal”.
The issue is not whether there is reincarnation or rebirth. It is about the human side of giving the child the right to decide what he wants to be, not what others want him to be.
The Dalai Lama is regarded as the principal incarnation of Chenrezig – referred to as Avalokiteshvara in India or Kwun Yim in China – the Bodhisattva of compassion and kindness. As a Living Buddha he should extend his kindness to all children by respecting their religious freedom.
Let us hope that in this modern era, the internationally recognised Dalai Lama can end this outdated tradition before he becomes 90, and impose the search for the next holiness on adults who can gainsay or identify themselves.
Yingwai Suchaovanich
Bangkok
