Raised in India's pluralistic embrace, next Dalai Lama would uphold tradition and global conscience: Report

London, Nov 5 (IANS) India's role in the selection of the next Dalai Lama is not that of asserting authority or directing but of protecting and upholding dignity, thereby honouring the sacred trust placed upon it by history, the Tibetan people and Buddhist philosophy of Dharma, a report cited on Wednesday.

"When the 14th Dalai Lama first crossed the snowy threshold into India in 1959, he carried with him not only the anguish of a displaced nation but the spiritual lineage of a thousand years. India received him not as a refugee, but as a revered guest, an heir to a tradition that had once flourished in the very soil of Nalanda and Vikramashila," a report in the European Times detailed.

“Today, as the question of his reincarnation looms, India is no longer just a sanctuary. It is the crucible in which the future of Tibetan Buddhism and the moral authority of the Dalai Lama will be forged. India is not foreign to Tibetan Buddhism; it is its ancestral womb,” it added.

According to the report, if the next Dalai Lama is born in India, he would be a child of both refuge and origin, nurtured in the land where the Dharma first flourished, reaffirming the spiritual legitimacy of the institution and strengthening its philosophical roots.

“China has made its intentions clear: it seeks to control the reincarnation process, to install a Dalai Lama of its own choosing. But legitimacy cannot be manufactured. It must be cultivated in the soil of trust, freedom, and spiritual authenticity. India, with its democratic ethos and constitutional protection of religious freedom, offers precisely that. By hosting the Tibetan government-in-exile and safeguarding the Dalai Lama’s teachings, India has become the de facto guardian of Tibetan spiritual sovereignty,” it stated.

The report stressed that in a world divided by identity politics and geopolitical rivalry, the Dalai Lama embodies a rare voice of equanimity, compassion, and disciplined joy. His teachings extend beyond Tibet or Buddhism, addressing the human condition. By nurturing this voice, it said, India becomes more than a host-- it becomes a guardian of global conscience.

“The next Dalai Lama, raised in India’s pluralistic embrace, would inherit not only the wisdom of Tibet but the moral clarity of Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Tagore. He would be a bridge between worlds, a child of exile who teaches belonging,” the report noted.

--IANS

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