Statements by Chinese government
In 2015, the Tibet regional governor Mr. Padma Choling (白玛赤林) stated:
“Whether [the Dalai Lama] wants to cease reincarnation or not … this decision is not up to him. When he became the 14th Dalai Lama, it was not his decision. He was chosen following a strict system dictated by religious rules and historical tradition and also with the approval of the central government. Can he decide when to stop reincarnating? That is impossible.[9]”
Choling’s statement disregards that indeed the Dalai Lama can decide whether to reincarnate or not as that is essential part of the Bodhisattva concept. The irony that an atheist Marxist government is involved in the afterlife and re-incarnation did not go unnoticed,[10] As joked by Jonathan Kaiman for the Los Angeles Times: “In China, it’s not easy to become a “living Buddha.” First come the years of meditation and discipline. Then comes the bureaucracy. (…) Although the ruling Communist Party is an officially atheist organization – officials are barred from practicing religion – it is perennially uncomfortable with forces outside of its control, and has for years demanded the power to regulate the supernatural affairs of Tibetan Buddhist figures, determining who can and cannot be reincarnated.” [11]
On August 3, 2007, State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 was issued by China which states that all the reincarnations of tulkus of Tibetan Buddhism must get government approval, otherwise they are “illegal or invalid”. [12]
Keep in mind that Wrathful Empathies is all about an evil authoritarian government that attempts to control the reincarnation of its citizens souls by implanting fear into their subconscious during life. Again, I thought I was writing a fictional novel. Yet, here is this Wikipedia quote where a communist government is dictating the very reincarnation of the next Dalia Lama. Unbelievable. What else could be happening to these Tibetan Buddhists?
Oh yeah, the story of this small boy is eerily reminiscent of the character Orc from my novel.
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
The 11th Panchen Lama in 1995
Born
25 April 1989
Disappeared
17 May 1995 (aged 6)
Lhari County, Tibet Autonomous Region
Status
Missing for 23 years, 4 months and 29 days
Title
11th Panchen Lama
according to the 14th Dalai Lama
Predecessor
Choekyi Gyaltsen
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism as announced by the Dalai Lama on 14 May 1995 but rejected by the search team appointed by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.[1] He was born in Lhari County, Tibet Autonomous Region. After his selection, he was taken into what the PRC government described as protective custody[2][3] and has not been acknowledged in public since 17 May 1995.[2][3]