Reincarnating Government

In one of the more peculiar recent news stories, the Chinese government is setting the procedure for Tibetan Buddhist monks to reincarnate. The background for this is of course a forward looking attempt by the Chinese government to silence the future Dalai Lama. The Chinese government is presumably trying to avoid the confusion over the Panchen Lama. Historically, the Dalai Lama has chosen the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, and vice-versa. However, when the last Panchen Lama died, in 1989, the Chinese government overrode the choice of the Dalai Lama, selected their own Panchen Lama, and have actually hidden the Dalai Lama’s choice. By setting the conditions under which the Dalai Lama can reincarnate, they are trying to prevent his reincarnation from being somewhere outside of their control. The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, has suggested that he will certainly not reincarnate in Tibet, and that he may not reincarnate at all.

The idea of this kind of governmental control over religion is interesting. It’s difficult to imagine anything like that happening in the U.S. today. We tend to feel that government and religion are separate spheres. President George W. Bush often publically alludes to his religious faith, and indeed a key part of his life story is his conversion to seriousness after a discussion with Billy Graham (the conversion story is such an obvious version of Shakespeare’s Henry V that it’s difficult to take seriously, but it could have happened that way, and in any case the old stories are the good ones). However, we would definitely look askance if the president started laying down the rules for a church.

Still, similar issues of government vs. religion arose in the past in Europe: kings often tried to control the pope. One of the effects of this in Europe was to make the pope a political figure, which led more or less directly to the Reformation. The religious wars of the Reformation were arguably a significant cause of the great decrease in religious belief during the Enlightenment. Obviously many other factors were involved. But I think it is supportable to say that the influence of politics on religious figures had the effect over time of decreasing the power of religion.

If that is the case, then the Chinese government is making a rational move: by politicizing the Tibetan religious heirarchy, they are weakening it. Of course, in Tibet the religion and the government were more or less the same, so the main religious figures were already political. But now the Chinese government is trying to bring them even more strongly into a separate, non-religious, sphere.

China is hoping that by weakening the Dalai Lama they will weaken Tibet’s claims to independence. However, this may back fire. The Dalai Lama, while strongly resisting Chinese control, has been a generally calming force. Removing his influence may lead to a resurgence of more secular nationalism in Tibet. As the last century showed, nationalism can be just as potent a force as religion, and it often lacks the veneer of moral guidance.