The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, announced July 2 that a charitable nonprofit, located in India as is he, will pick his successor after his death – and do so outside the control of the Chinese Communist Party. The decision, made just before his 90th birthday, has set off political fireworks in Beijing. The ruling party claims only it can make the selection for some 7 million Tibetans in China.
Yet there are several challenges for the party in its attempt to control the future of Tibetan Buddhism – along with many other popular faiths in China.
First, among China’s majority ethnic Han, the practice of this brand of Buddhism has become very popular. The nation’s drive for materialistic wealth has left a spiritual void for many in the middle class.
“As China’s cities have become more atomized and social trust has eroded,” wrote John Osburg, a scholar at the Asia Society Policy Institute, “many affluent Chinese are drawn to the sense of community provided by faith-based groups.”
“Members of China’s elite who convert to Tibetan Buddhism say they value its purity and intellectually rigorous philosophy,” he stated.
Second, a model for community charity with Buddhist roots in Tibet – a practice known as kyidu, which the party banned there in 2018 – has spread in China, helping drive an increase in private giving outside state control. From 2013 to 2023, the country saw a 388% rise in the proportion of people who donated money, according to the Charities Aid Foundation. Much of that giving was informal and local.
Third, the current Dalai Lama has often seemed little worried about Beijing’s attempts to control a religion that’s well entrenched in much of Asia.
“Buddhism has existed for thousands of years and the Dalai Lama institution for just a few centuries,” he told the India news site DNA nearly a decade ago. “Institutions, such as the Dalai Lama’s, are not set in stone and can be discontinued – there’s no problem with that.”
“It seems the Chinese communist government is more concerned about the Dalai Lama institution,” he added.
As with China’s many popular beliefs, from Confucianism to Buddhism to Christianity, people practicing them do so for internal motivations, such as spiritual growth. As the Dalai Lama stated in his July 2 decision, he has been clear as far back as 1969 “that concerned people should decide” if the tradition of a dalai lama should continue. Followers of Tibetan Buddhism, he stated, requested a successor for him.
