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This is one for the "weird news" pile...


China tells Tibet's living Buddhas to apply for reincarnation

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070803/tts-china-tibet-religion-
incarnation-a73cdd6.html

AFP - Friday, August 3 BEIJING (AFP) - - Tibetan living Buddhas are
no longer allowed to be reincarnated without permission from the
atheist Chinese government, state media reported Friday.

The new rules are "an important move to institutionalise the
management of reincarnation of living Buddhas," the Xinhua news
agency said.

According to the regulations, which take effect on September 1, all
reincarnation applications must be submitted to religious affairs
officials for approval, Xinhua said.

China is ruled by the Communist Party, which, despite being
officially atheist, maintains strict controls over Tibetan Buddhism
and all other religions.

Living Buddhas are an important element in Tibetan Buddhism, forming
a clergy of influential religious figures who are believed to be
continuously reincarnated to take up their positions anew.

Often there is more than one candidate competing to be recognised as
the actual reincarnation, and the authority to decide who is the true
claimant carries significant power.

This is especially true in the case of the Panchen Lama, the second-
most influential figure in Tibetan Buddhism behind the Dalai Lama.

Chinese authorities detained the Dalai Lama's choice as the Panchen
Lama in 1995 when the boy was six years old, and he has not been seen
in public since.

The Chinese government's choice as the Panchen Lama has meanwhile
been paraded around the country in recent years to promote China's
rule over his homeland.

China sent troops in to "liberate" Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama
later fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and established a
government-in-exile in Dharamsala.