Who after Dalai Lama? Tibetans seek answers amid festivity

As Tibetans across India today celebrated Losar, the Tibetan New Year, though on a sombre note to pledge solidarity with earthquake victims in Tibet, the Dalai Lama was missing from the celebrations at McLeodganj, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The Dalai Lama, who returned home from South India last week, shared his message with the faithful amid prayers at the monastery in McLeodganj.

The Tibetan leader, hailed as the reincarnation of Avalokiteswara, or the Buddha, turns 90 on July 7, and is said to be in frail health.

The question, “After Dalai Lama, who”, is at the back of the mind of every Tibetan as well as the Central Government, considering the geopolitical importance of Tibet in which China’s expanding influence plays a key role.

“The Dalai Lama has said he will leave written instructions about his reincarnation. However, till such time the next Dalai Lama is found, we will require a spiritual leader like the 17th Karmapa to prevent China from interfering in our religious affairs,” said Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist and writer.

In the past, the Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside Tibet and can even be a woman.

Others like Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar, a two-time MP in the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile, feels that it is the political leadership which will have to fill the vacuum in the absence of the Dalai Lama.

“His Holiness has made the Tibetan people self-reliant but till the time of his reincarnation, people who are suffering inside Tibet and the exiled Tibetans will have to keep inspiring each other to keep the Tibetan freedom movement going as it is our identity and existence,” says Dolkar, whose parents and grandparents were political prisoners in Tibet.

The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, who made a miraculous escape from his monastery in Xigaze, China, for India in 2000 when he was only 14 years old, is the head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and has been accepted by the Dalai Lama as such. But he has been in the middle of considerable personal upheaval in recent years, living abroad since May 2017.

He has since lived in the US, Canada and Germany, and most recently obtained the citizenship of the Caribbean nation of Dominica. Tibetan observers, speaking on condition of anonymity, believe “it will be natural” if he were to emerge as the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist leader after the Dalai Lama and become the face of the Tibetan movement-in-exile after the Dalai Lama.

On September 2, 2024, the Karmapa met the Dalai Lama at Zurich in Switzerland and later wrote that he felt sad at seeing him so physically frail. However, there is considerable uncertainty about his return to India even as efforts are being made by Tibetans to convince him to return in the interests of the Tibetan cause.

In Tibetan Buddhism, two religious heads — the Panchen Lama, who heads the Tashilhunpo monastery in Tibet, and the Karamapa — are considered the most important leaders after the Dalai Lama.

While Gedun Choekyi Nyima, who was recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama, remains under Tibetan detention, China appointed Gyaincain Norbu as the Panchen Lama, creating a dispute over succession.

“There is no doubt that the Karmapa is the most respected and learned religious leader after the Dalai Lama, who has earned the love and respect of the Tibetan community. India must make efforts to bring him back as he will prove to be a unifier for the Tibetans and an asset for India,” says Tibetan activist Tenzin.

There was a dispute over the rightful claimant to the title of the 17th Karmapa with two religious heads choosing separate successors to the 16th Karmapa. The recognition of the 17th Karmapa created a split with Tai Situ Rimpoche choosing Ogyen Trinley Dorjee and Shamar Rimpoche throwing his weight behind Trinley Thaye Dorjee. The Dalai Lama, however, recognised Dorjee and even nurtured him after his surprise arrival in Dharamsala in January 2000.