Tawang monastery: China can’t pick next Dalai Lama

Tawang (Arunachal), Oct 24

China has no authority to get involved in choosing the next Dalai Lama, especially since the Chinese Government does not believe in religion, and the succession is entirely a spiritual matter for the Tibetan people, the head of the Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh has said.

Gyangbung Rinpoche, the Abbot of the nearly 350-year-old monastery near India’s border with China, said it was important to counter Beijing’s policy of expansionism and New Delhi must maintain a vigil over the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The head of the second largest monastery in the world after the Potala Palace in Tibet’s Lhasa said only the current Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people had the right to decide about the succession of the Tibetan spiritual leader and China had no role to play in the matter. — PTI