China to Tibet: no reincarnating without governmental consent

[jrtom]

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/22/china_to_tibetan_bud.html

In such cases one really needs to wonder if there was an agente provocateur with Tibetan sympathies inside the Chinese government, who suggested this course of action. I mean, seriously, there are three groups of people for this purpose:

(1) Chinese citizens who believe everything that their government tells them, that will believe the government when it announces that the new reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has been born inside China proper.

(2) Tibetan nationalists that won't accept the Chinese government's party line, and will probably take the Dalai Lama's word for what's going to happen with his reincarnation.

(3) The rest of the world, who is looking upon this spectacle with a bemused expression, thinking "what the _hell_?" and/or laughing their asses off.

So you're playing to the home gallery and you don't care who else believes you, fine. Do you really think it's going to make a difference, and is it worth the increased reputation as the place to go for really thorough totalitarianism?

Comments

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

It's really about trying to undermine the legitimacy of succession within Tibetan Buddhism.

The Chinese have been trying to wipe out the native religion there since they invaded. Test were burned and monks tortured and gruesomely murdered. Resistance to the Chinese government within Tibet has traditionally centered around religion as the monestaries and convents were not only part of the government there, but a deeply and embedded part of the culture and way of life. Tibetan Buddhism is deeply threaded through Tibetan identity.

Anyway, the real point is, they can't stamp out the religion, so are trying to assert state control over it.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand what they're trying to accomplish. This is just a specific case of the general principle, however, that making laws regarding things that are completely outside the control of the government in question just makes the government look stupid and ineffectual. It's King Canute (Knut) all over again.

Now, I could imagine a law that punishes _claiming_ that one has been reincarnated, if one hasn't governmental approval for such claim. Still draconian, still oppressive, but it doesn't make the government sound stupid. And this may in fact be the law that was passed, but the article sure makes it sound like they're trying to criminalize the reincarnation _itself_.