Successor chosen by Dalai Lama 'illegal': China 
 
 BEIJING — China said Monday any successor chosen by the Dalai Lama would be "illegal" after the Tibetan spiritual leader announced that he, and not Beijing, would decide whether he should be reincarnated. 
 
 The Dalai Lama, who is 76, said on Saturday he would decide when he was "about 90" whether he should be reincarnated, in consultation with other monks, and that China should have no say in the matter. 
 
 Under Tibetan tradition, monks identify a young boy who shows signs he is a reincarnation of a late leader, but many predict China will simply appoint its own successor to the Dalai Lama. 
 
 China's foreign ministry said any reincarnation process would have to be conducted in accordance with the country's "laws and regulation". 
 
 "The title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is illegal otherwise," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists. 
 
 "There is a complete set of religious rituals and historical conventions in reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and a Dalai Lama identifying his own successor has never been the practice. 
 
 "The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should follow religious rituals and historical conventions and laws and regulations of this state." 
 
 Tibet's spiritual leader said he had decided to lay out "clear guidelines to recognise the next Dalai Lama" while he was still "physically and mentally fit" so that there was "no room for doubt or deception." 
 
 The Dalai Lama made the statement in a 4,200-word document issued after a gathering of leaders of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, home of the government in exile. 
 
 He had earlier signalled a willingness to break with custom by choosing a successor before his death or among exiles outside Tibet. He had also said he might be open to electing the next Dalai Lama. 
 
 China's stance raises the prospect of two Dalai Lamas -- one recognised by Beijing and the other chosen by exiles or with the blessing of the current Dalai Lama. 
 
 This happened in 1995, when China rejected the Dalai Lama's choice to be the next Panchen Lama, the second-highest ranking Tibetan Buddhist, and picked its own reincarnation. 
 
 The Chinese-raised Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, is now 21 and often extols Beijing's rule over Tibet. The Dalai Lama's selection, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, has not been seen since 1995 after he was detained by China. 
 
 The Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. He later founded the government in exile in Dharamshala after being offered refuge by India. 
 
 China vilifies him as a "separatist" who incites violence in Tibet, while he insists his sole focus is a peaceful campaign for greater autonomy for his homeland. 
 
 China's state news agency Xinhua echoed the ministry's statements, calling the spiritual leader a "has-been" and saying his latest comments were aimed at keeping him in the spotlight following his retirement from politics. 
 
 "Over the decades since he fled China in 1959, the Dalai Lama has come to enjoy his role as a political monk, travelling across the globe, picking up his accolades and selling his independence claim," it said. 
 
 "Like a has-been star, he fears the loss of popularity, a personal loss that does no harm to his fellow Tibetans, but would certainly announce the eventual failure of his separatist attempt." 
 
 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Tibetan advocacy organizations and international rights groups called this week on China to release a high-ranking Tibetan religious figure taken into custody 22 years ago and held incommunicado ever since. 
 
 
 
 Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, now 28 years old, was detained together with his family by Chinese authorities in 1995 after he was identified by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second most-senior Buddhist monk. 
 
 
 
 A Beijing-backed candidate, Gyaincain Norbu, was then installed by China in his place, and remains unpopular among Tibetans. 
 
 
 
 Nothing has been learned of the fate of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima since he vanished with his family in detention, and requests by the United Nations and other international agencies and human rights organizations to visit him have consistently been refused by Beijing. 
 
 
 
 Speaking in an interview with RFA's Tibetan Service, Dardon Sharling—a secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Dharamsala, India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)—described the Panchen Lama's continued disappearance as the "greatest representation of China's overall policy toward Tibet and Tibetans." 
 
 
 
 "The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance has told CTA officials that the issue of the Panchen Lama remains an 'unresolved case,'" Sharling said. 
 
 
 
 China's refusal to allow the young lama to fulfill his traditional role is a "huge loss not only for the Panchen Lama himself but also for Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people," Sonam Gyaltsen—a professor of history at the College of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah, in Dharamsala—told RFA. 
 
 
 
 "Getting a proper spiritual education is the most important cause for a reincarnated lama to be able to continue the work of his predecessor," Gyaltsen said. 
 
 
 
 'Serious international crime' 
 
 
 
 In an open letter released on April 25, the Panchen Lama’s birthday, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner Tenzin Dorjee chose words that spoke directly to Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, voicing his sadness that the missing Panchen Lama may never read his words. 
 
 
 
 “Ever since you were abducted as a young child at the age of six, the Chinese government has refused to share even basic information about you and your whereabouts,” Dorjee wrote. 
 
 
 
 “Please know that I think about you every day, and as each year passes, my resolve to find you and restore you to your rightful role becomes stronger.” 
 
 
 
 “The continued detention of the Panchen Lama in secret is an act of enforced disappearance,” the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) added in a statement this week. 
 
 
 
 “[This] is a serious international crime that violates multiple human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other major international human rights instruments,” TCHRD said. 
 
 
 
 “TCHRD calls on the Chinese government to end the enforced disappearance of the Panchen Lama and allow him to live like a ‘normal’ human being with all the basic rights such as life, livelihood, and [freedom of] movement,” the rights group said. 
 
 
 
 Interference from Beijing 
 
 
 
 The selection of reincarnate lamas in Tibetan areas of China is now subject to approval by Beijing, with high-ranking religious teachers often cultivated by the government as “patriotic lamas”-—politically reliable figures who will not call for Tibetan independence from Chinese rule. 
 
 
 
 China is now keen to engineer a process that produces a pro-Beijing monk as the next Dalai Lama when the present holder of the title, now 81, eventually passes away. 
 
 
 
 “Without any recognition from the Dalai Lama, the Chinese authorities can never be able to put the stamp of legitimacy to their selection of any religious leader, whether it is the Panchen Lama or a future Dalai Lama,” Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said in an April 25 statement. 
 
 
 
 “China might want to have its own version of Rule by Incarnation,” Tsering said. “But it is the will of the believers that will really matter.” 
 
 
 
 “The earlier the Chinese authorities realize this, the better it will be for them.” 
 
 Reported by Urgyen Tenzin for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Kalden Lodoe. Written in English by Richard Finney.
– The Dalai Lama says it’s up to him to decide whether he should be reincarnated—and of course China isn't having any of that. Beijing today dismissed any successor picked by the spiritual leader himself as illegal, following the 76-year-old’s statement this weekend that he’ll make a decision on reincarnation when he’s “about 90." He said China shouldn’t weigh in on the choice; China, however, says that “the title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is illegal otherwise." Traditionally, monks pick a young boy to be Dalai Lama based on signs he is the previous leader’s reincarnation, AFP notes. But “a Dalai Lama identifying his own successor has never been the practice,” says a rep for China’s foreign ministry. “The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should follow religious rituals and historical conventions and laws and regulations of this state." The current Dalai Lama said he planned to offer “clear guidelines to recognize the next Dalai Lama” while he remains “physically and mentally fit.” Meanwhile, two young Tibetan monks set themselves on fire today in China, calling for religious freedom.