THE TULKU SUCCESSIONS in Tibet are a bureaucratic approach to the succession problem, which all governments seem to be afflicted with.
The succession problem, briefly, is this: in systems were there is someone “in charge,” how do you prevent that slot from being occupied by a clunker of some sort? A dummy, a maniac, a tool of some hidden manipulator.
The tulku succession system in Tibet is still in place. When the current Dalai and Panchen Lamas die, they will be replaced in the normal manner, by a committee. The current Panchen Lama was approved by Beijing. Beijing does not approve of the current Dalai Lama, but it has not attempted to replace him, as previous Chinese governments have occasionally tried to do. Tibetans never accepted the Beijing-imposed Dalai Lamas,…
