Author Topic: His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week  (Read 4200 times)

Ringo Starr

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His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week
« on: November 18, 2016, 08:48:37 AM »
Dalai Lama to visit Mongolia, possibly sparking China’s anger

PUBLISHED : Friday, 18 November, 2016, 12:15am
UPDATED : Friday, 18 November, 2016, 12:15am

Associated Press
POLICIES & POLITICS

The Dalai Lama will visit Mongolia this week, Buddhist leaders said Thursday, potentially sparking an angry response from China.

Davaapurev, a monk at the Gandan monastery in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, said the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s four-day visit starting Friday is for purely religious purposes.

He is to receive an honorary degree, take part in religious observances and hold meetings with academics and representatives of the nation’s youth, said Davaapurev, who is organising the visit. No word was given on any meetings with political figures.
The visit is “separate from politics and for religious purposes only,” Davaapurev said.

China, landlocked Mongolia’s giant southern neighbour, accuses the head of Tibetan Buddhism of seeking independence for Tibet and routinely objects to his overseas travels. Beijing has in past used the Mongolian economy’s heavy dependence on trade with China as leverage, cutting off rail links and disrupting air travel during a visit by the Dalai Lama in 2006.

Mongolian Buddhism is closely tied to Tibet’s strain and traditionally reveres the Dalai Lama as a leading spiritual figure.

However, the abbot of the rival Ikh Khuree monastery, Sanjdorj Zandan, criticised the visit as interference in Mongolia’s internal affairs and said it appeared the Dalai Lama planned to name the new head of Mongolian Buddhism. Davaapurev denied any such appointment would be made.

Tibetan Buddhist leaders are recognised as the reincarnations of their predecessors and their appointments can be major sources of controversy.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, made the first of his eight visits to Mongolia in 1979, when the country was still under Communist rule.

Source:
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/2047038/dalai-lama-visit-mongolia-possibly-sparking-chinas-anger

kris

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Re: His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2016, 04:08:33 PM »
It is quite sad to see the visit of HH Dalai Lama being viewed as political rather than spiritual. By right, HHDL visiting of Mongolia is supposed to spread Dharma and benefit others, but many are watching the event to see if Mongolia will listen to China's instruction.

That brings to a very important question: Whatever strategy HHDL is using, the Middle Way or Umaylam, is it really working out? Will China be willing to give HHDL the autonomous? It seems to me that this strategy has failed to move China even a bit, because there is no bargaining power on Tibet at all. Is HHDL going to push through His strategy of Middle Way? Or is there other strategy He is going to deploy?

Tenzin Malgyur

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Re: His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2016, 08:12:10 AM »
Yes, it is really sad to see the visit of HHDL to Mongolia would evoke a negative response of anger from China. I do have the highest respect for HHDL as the emanation of Chenrezig. But from previous occasions and due to His Holiness being the religious and political leader of the Tibetans, it is understood why China would felt so. I pray the day would come soon when His Holiness would tell his CTA to start by uniting their citizens before even going elsewhere for assistance. Seems to me that the sympathizers are running out.

grandmapele

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Re: His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2016, 09:32:00 AM »
All i have to say in this is for the CTA and the Dalai Lama to practice what they preach.

The Dalai Lama must follow up on his words and advocacy for compassion, forgiveness and harmony. if the CTA or any of the Tibetans were to use his name and office to say to the contrary or to behave badly, His Holiness should censure them. After all, that would be in contradiction to his words as spiritual leader and perceived head of the Tibetans.

This visit to Mongolia does not have a clear agenda. If it is as inferred by  the abbot of the Ikh Khuree monastery, Sanjdorj Zandan that the visit is for the Dalai Lama to name the new head of Mongolian Buddhism, then that will not go down well with the people and the China. The people will definitely not wish for what happened to Tibet to happen to them - a great divide.

That will definitely not be at all palatable to the Mongolians.

Ringo Starr

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Re: His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2016, 10:02:09 AM »
A bit of background on the Jebtsundamba Khutuktus in Mongolia from Wikiwand:

History

The first Jebtsundamba, Zanabazar (1635–1723), was identified as the reincarnation of the scholar Taranatha of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism. Zanabazar was the son of the Tüsheet Khan Gombodorj, ruler of central Khalkha Mongolia, and himself became the spiritual head of the Khalkha Mongols.

On May 29, the Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu paid homage to the Kangxi Emperor in 1691 at Dolonnor.[3]

Like Zanabazar, the 2nd Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was a member of Mongolia's highest nobility and direct descendant of Genghis Khan. After Chingünjav's rebellion and the demise of the second Jebtsundamba Khutugtu, the Qianlong Emperor decreed in 1758 that all future reincarnations were to be found from among the population of Tibet.

When northern Mongolia declared independence in 1911, the eighth Jebtsundamba (1869–1924) was elevated to theocratic ruler, called Bogd Khan. He was the head of state until his death in 1924. The communist government of the Mongolian People's Republic, which replaced the theocracy in 1924, declared that there were to be no further reincarnations.

A reincarnation was in fact found almost at once in north Mongolia, and some high lamas of the dead Khutughtu's suite went to interview the child's mother, Tsendjav, and to instruct her in the details of the life of the former incarnation, so that she could familiarize the child-candidate with the tests which he would have to undergo. Faced with the possibility of a new Khutughtu who was born within Mongolia and was not even a foreigner from Tibet, the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party decided in July 1925 to turn the matter over to the elderly 13th Dalai Lama in Lhasa. The Dalai Lama's decision would nonetheless be subject to new Mongolian legislation for the separation of church and state. In February 1929, the installation of any further Khutughtus was forbidden.[4]

A 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu was installed by the 14th Dalai Lama as the head of a reinvigorated Jonang lineage. He was born Jampal Namdol Chökyi Gyaltsen in 1932 and he died in early 2012.

Despite the Chinese government's claim to have inherited the authority and ultimate decision right for the choice of successor of all high lamas in Mongolia and Tibet, the 9th Jebstundamba has passed will to be reincarnated within the independent Mongolia and the selection will be confirmed by the Dalai Lama.

This puts China in a dilemma of endangering their foreign affairs with Mongolia for the choice of the next Lama or to forfeit this right that they claim to have control of religious affairs, ultimately giving up their authority over the choice of the next Dalai Lama and putting their current choice of the Panchen Lama in question.[5]

Source:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Jebtsundamba_Khutuktu

grandmapele

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Re: His Holiness Dalai Lama is to visit Mongolia this week
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2016, 03:41:53 PM »
It is going to be a very tough and tense situation should the Dalai Lama visit Mongolia to name the new head of Mongolian Buddhism. Will China take a tough stance? Will the Dalai Lama bulldoze his way through as he is known to do? Will this be a showdown with China or will this visit be the laurel leaf by the Dalai Lama to China?

What about the 1929 Mongolian legislation forbidding the installation of any further Khutughtus? This is really tense. The last visit of the Dalai Lama to Mongolia was thawed by Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche's visit in 2014.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiH6sLO1bfQAhUIRY8KHR7FBcUQtwIIITAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4aW6AsIW6s4&usg=AFQjCNHIMc4L4OjalIv-Pgk50-YKf6R-XA&bvm=bv.139250283,d.c2I