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Who will identify the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama?
The 14th Dalai Lama
Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, usually shortened to Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Dhondup, July 6, 1935) is the 14th Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader revered among the people of Tibet. He is the head of the government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India. Tibetans traditionally believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors. As well as being Tibet’s spiritual leader, Dalai Lamas have traditionally been the country’s absolute ruler.
The current Dalai Lama is sometimes called “His Holiness” (HH) by Westerners (by analogy with the Pope), although this does not translate to a Tibetan title. ”Dalai” means “Ocean” in Mongolian, and is a translation of the Tibetan name “Gyatso,” while “Lama” is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word “guru.” Putting the terms together, the full title is “Ocean Teacher” meaning a teacher who is spiritually as great as the ocean.
The 14th Dalai Lama remarks: “The very name of each Dalai Lama from the Second Dalai Lama onwards had the word Gyatso [in it], which means “ocean” in Tibetan. Even now I am Tenzin Gyatso, so the first name is changing but the second part [the word "ocean"] became like part of each Dalai Lama’s name. All of the Dalai Lamas, since the Second, have this name.”
Searching for the Reincarnation
By the Himalayan tradition, phowa (Tibetan) is the discipline that transfers the mindstream to the intended body. Upon the death of the Dalai Lama and consultation with the Nechung Oracle, a search for the Lama’s reincarnation, or yangsi (yang srid), is conducted. Traditionally it has been the responsibility of the High Lamas of the Gelugpa Tradition and the Tibetan government to find his reincarnation. The process can take around two or three years to identify the Dalai Lama, and for the 14th, Tenzin Gyatso it was four years before he was found. The search for the Dalai Lama has usually been limited historically to Tibet, although the third tulku was born in Mongolia. Tenzin Gyatso, though, has stated that there is a chance that he will not be reborn although if he is reborn it will not be in a country possessed by the People’s Republic of China. In his autobiography, Freedom In Exile, he states that after he dies it is possible that his people will no longer want a Dalai Lama, in which case there would be no search for the Lama’s reincarnation. “So, I might take rebirth as an insect, or an animal – whatever would be of most value to the largest number of sentient beings“.
The High Lamas used several ways in which they can increase the chances of finding the reincarnation. High Lamas often visit the holy lake, called Lhamo La-tso, in central Tibet and watch for a sign from the lake itself. This may be either a vision or some indication of the direction in which to search and this was how Tenzin Gyatso was found. It is said that Palden Lhamo, the female guardian spirit of the sacred lake, Lhamo La-tso, promised Gendun Drup, the 1st Dalai Lama in one of his visions “that she would protect the reincarnation lineage of the Dalai Lamas.” Ever since the time of Gendun Gyatso, the 2nd Dalai Lama, who formalized the system, the Regents and other monks have gone to the lake to seek guidance on choosing the next reincarnation through visions while meditating there.
Lhamo Latso is a brilliant azure jewel set in a ring of grey mountains. The elevation and the surrounding peaks combine to give it a highly changeable climate, and the continuous passage of cloud and wind creates a constantly moving pattern on the surface of the waters. On that surface visions appear to those who seek them in the right frame of mind.
It was here that during 1935, the Regent, Reting Rinpoche, received a clear vision of three Tibetan letters and of a monastery with a jade-green and gold roof, and a house with turquoise roof tiles, which led to the discovery of Tenzin Gyatso, the present 14th Dalai Lama.
High Lamas may also have a vision by a dream or if the Dalai Lama was cremated, they will often monitor the direction of the smoke as an indication of the direction of the rebirth.
Once the High Lamas have found the home and the boy they believe to be the reincarnation, the boy undergoes a series of tests to affirm the rebirth. They present a number of artefacts, only some of which belonged to the previous Dalai Lama, and if the boy chooses the items which belonged to the previous Dalai Lama, this is seen as a sign, in conjunction with all of the other indications, that the boy is the reincarnation.
If there is only one boy found, the High Lamas will invite Living Buddhas of the three great monasteries together with secular clergy and monk officials, to confirm their findings and will then report to the Central Government through the Minister of Tibet. Later a group consisting of the three major servants of Dalai Lama, eminent officials and troops will collect the boy and his family and travel to Lhasa, where the boy would be taken, usually to Drepung Monastery to study the Buddhist sutra in preparation for assuming the role of spiritual leader of Tibet.
However, if there are several possibilities of the reincarnation, in the past regents and eminent officials and monks at the Jokhang in Lhasa, and the Minister to Tibet would decide on the individual by putting the boys’ names inside an urn and drawing one lot in public if it was too difficult to judge the reincarnation initially.
The Incarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama
Lhamo Dhondup was a somber child, and he liked to stay indoors alone. When away from home, he would only drink from his mother’s cup. He would not let others touch his blanket and always kept it near his mother. He was preoccupied with packing his clothes and things. While he could hardly talk, when questioned, he replied he was “packing to go to Lhasa and would take all of us with him.”
When he met a quarrelsome person, he would pick up a stick and try to beat him. If someone smoked, “he would flare into a rage.” Friends reported they were afraid of him. One day, he told the family “he had come from heaven.”
When he was just two years old, party of officials from Lhasa charged with identifying the 14th Dalai Lama visited the family home three times. Over a three-year period of search, they identified sixteen possible candidates, reduced them to three finalists, and finally settled on Lhamo Dhondup in 1935.
On the first visit, Khetsang Rinpoche of the party had two staffs and Dhondup “went to the staffs, laid one aside, and picked up the other. He struck Rinpoche lightly on the back with it, said the staff was his and why had Rinpoche taken it.” (His mother said the members of the party exchanged “meaningful looks.”)
On a later visit of the party, he stuck his hand underneath Rinpoche’s robe and withdrew a rosary and insisted it was his. (His mother later learned that the 13th Dalai Lama had given that rosary to Rinpoche.)
On the third visit, the party placed a bowl of candy before Dhondup along with two rosaries and two ritual drums. He took one piece of candy and gave it to his mother. He then selected the rosary and the drum that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama. Later they told his mother that, during a 3-hour private session, they had spoken to him in the Lhasa dialect (that he had never heard before) and that he had replied without difficulty. When they departed, he cried to go with them.
When all sixteen candidates were later taken to Lhasa to meet Ma Pu-fang the governor, he alone did not cry or cling to his parents. Dhondup went to the only vacant seat and sat down. While the other children gobbled down the candy placed before them, he took one piece for his great-uncle. He correctly identified Pu-fang although he had never met him before.
At his point Pu-fang chose him as the 14th Dalai Lama, saying he was dignified beyond his years, different with his big eyes, and intelligent in his conversation and actions. The other children and their families were sent back home.
Dhondup’s mother reported in her memoirs that a month before his birth one of her dreams was of two green snow lions flying around a brilliant blue dragon. All three beings smiled at her and greeted her in traditional Tibetan style. She thought her son might become a high Lama. Later, she was told the dragon was Dhondup and the others were showing him the way to his rebirth.
In 1939, at the age of four, the present Dalai Lama was taken in a procession of lamas to Lhasa.
Residence
Starting with the 5th Dalai Lama and until the 14th Dalai Lama’s flight into exile during 1959, the Dalai Lamas spent the winter at the Potala Palace and the summer at the Norbulingka palace and park. Both are in Lhasa and approximately 3 km (roughly 2 miles) apart.
During 1959, after the start of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama sought refuge in India. The then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was instrumental in granting safe refuge to the Dalai Lama and his fellow Tibetans. The Dalai Lama has since lived in exile in Dharamsala, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, where the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan government-in-exile) is also established. Tibetan refugees have constructed and opened many schools and Buddhist temples in Dharamsala.
References
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