China does not have any right to pick the next Dalai Lama, said a top US diplomat as per PTI. He asserted that Tibetan Buddhists did a good job for centuries.??
"I travelled to Dharamshala, India to speak to the Tibetan community that were assembled there in exile and to tell them that the US is opposed to China picking the next Dalai Lama," said Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel D Brownback while speaking to reporters.?
"They have no right to do that. They have no theological basis to do that. The Tibetan Buddhists have successfully picked their leader for hundreds of years, if not longer, and they have the right to do that now," he added.?
Brownback said USA backs the right of religious communities to pick their leaders.?
"That certainly includes the next Dalai Lama. So we've pushed back against that. We're going to continue to push back against that. We think that's completely wrong of the Chinese Communist Party to assert that they have that right," he went on to say..?
The 14th Dalai Lama is now 85 years old. He has lived in India since 1959 when he fled Tibet after China's crackdown on the locals. The Tibetan government-in-exile operates from Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. India is home to over 1,60,000 Tibetans.?
"The answer to terrorism isn't locking up everybody. The answer to terrorism is religious freedom, allowing people to freely practice their faith, and they won't fight you as much. If the Chinese weren't at war with faith, they would have a more open society, but they'd also have a more satisfying citizenry that seeks to practice their faith and be left alone and left in peace," he told the media.?
He said China must stop their war on faith.?
"They are persecuting all faiths. And the big one that we announced today was this effort to really push back on the use of technology to create these virtual police states to persecute religious adherence. This is something they've done in Tibet, they are doing in Xinjiang, and rolling out in different places in their country. We want to stop this from spreading to other countries around the world or spreading more to other countries around the world," he added.