Hardening its stance on the appointment of the Dalai lama’s successor, China on Sunday said it played a “vital role” in the succession as it had officially conferred the title of the 5th Dalai lama in 1653.
“The 14th Dalai lama has been talking about his reincarnation as though the centuries-old system is his personal matter,” state-run Xinhua news agency said in a commentary questioning the Tibetan’s high priest’s assertions about his successor.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, the Dalai lama hinted he would hold some kind of referendum among Tibetan exiles, and consultations among Tibetans within China, on whether a new Dalai lama should succeed him.
The 80-year-old monk told the daily that “the Chinese Communist Party is pretending that they know more about the reincarnation system than Dalai lama.”