Source: United News Agency
SARNATH, INDIA, January 8, 2001: The Dalai Lama, the exile Tibetan spiritual leader, said Tuesday he will not reincarnate in Tibet or any other territory under Chinese rule. If Tibet was not free when he dies, his reincarnation would be born in some free country elsewhere, the Dalai Lama, 66, said in Sarnath, northern India. Observers saw Dalai Lama’s statement as politically significant in view of the Chinese detention six years ago of a boy whom he had confirmed as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second-ranking religious figure. China has recognized another boy. Observers said the Dalai Lama’s statement now made it practically impossible for the Chinese to have a hand one day in deciding who the next Dalai Lama may be, or for an eventual candidate of theirs to have popular support among Tibetans.