The US Congress had a million things to worry about, as they struggled over the past few months to cobble together a compromise COVID relief bill, HR 133.
Which probably helps explain why the final legislation, signed into law on December 27, amounted to 5,593 pages. The $2.3 trillion funding bill also provided funding for the federal government, thus avoiding a federal shutdown that could have happened on December 29. Maybe $900 billion will be aimed at COVID relief.
Not all of the details in the final bill dealt specifically with the coronavirus… or with government funding. On page 5095, for example, the legislation took a curious little detour, into the realm of reincarnation.
A little religious background to get us started.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be the 14th reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and a “realized being” who vowed to be repeatedly reborn in the world, to help all living beings attain complete enlightenment.
Tenzin Gyatso was born on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in a small hamlet located in northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, the child, then named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognized by senior monastic disciples as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. In 1950, after China’s invasion of Tibet, His Holiness was called upon by the Tibetan leadership to assume full political power. He was 15 years old.
Four years later, His Holiness went to Beijing and met with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. In 1959, following the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, the Dalai Lama was forced to escape into exile. He has maintained his home base in Dharamsala, northern India, ever since.
The ancient tradition whereby the Dalai Lama exercises political leadership for the Tibetan people came to an end in 1990, when His Holiness dissolved his cabinet and endorsed the election of a democratic Tibetan government. 46 members were elected to an expanded Eleventh Tibetan Assembly on a one-person-one-vote basis, by Tibetans living in exile in India and 33 other countries.
Since 2011, the Dalai Lama has described himself as “retired.”
Something else important took place in 2011. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declared that only the Chinese government in Beijing can appoint the next Dalai Lama, and no recognition should be given to any other succession candidate.
Apparently, the US Congress, and the US President who signed HR 133 into law, want to make sure that the Chinese government doesn’t royally screw things up.
You can download the 21-page section of HR 133 dealing with reincarnation, here.
Identifying a reincarnated ‘realized being’ is not child’s play. The search for the 14th Dalai Lama began shortly after the 13th Dalai Lama died. The disciples closest to the 13th Dalai Lama set out to identify the location of his rebirth. Predictions about where and when the Dalai Lama would be reborn were available, but further tests, and signs, were required to ensure the proper child was found.
In the case of the 13th Dalai Lama, after his death, his body lay facing south. However, after a few days his head had tilted to the east, and an unusual fungus appeared on the northeastern side of the shrine containing his body. This was interpreted to mean that the next Dalai Lama could have been born somewhere in the northeastern part of Tibet.
The district of Dokham, which is in the northeast of Tibet, matched the predictions and omens. A 2-year-old boy, Lhamo Dhondup, was just the right age for a reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama based on the time of his death. When the search party arrived at the boy’s house, there were immediate signs that this was the child they were looking for.
At some point in the not-too-distant future, the world will welcome another reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara. We can easily imagine the Chinese government making a mess of this process, and picking totally the wrong person.
It seems Congress has the very same worries. After all, this is the same Chinese government that has transformed a nation of 1.6 billion starving peasants into the world’s second-most-powerful economic power. (Among other accomplishments, not all of which are pleasant to consider.)
So, on page 5,101 of HR 133, we’ve set out our policy:
STATEMENT OF POLICY. It is the policy of the United States that
- decisions regarding the selection, education, and veneration of Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders are exclusively spiritual matters that should be made by the appropriate religious authorities within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and in the context of the will of practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism;
- the wishes of the 14th Dalai Lama, including any written instructions, should play a key role in the selection, education, and veneration of a future 15th Dalai Lama; and
- interference by the Government of the People’s Republic of China or any other government in the process of recognizing a successor or reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama and any future Dalai Lamas would represent a clear abuse of the right to religious freedom of Tibetan Buddhists and the Tibetan people.
And Congress means what they say, when they warn China that the US will hold people accountable… by taking “all appropriate measures to hold accountable senior officials of the Government of the People’s Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party who directly interfere with the identification and installation of the future 15th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, successor to the 14th Dalai Lama, including by:”
- imposing sanctions pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 9 U.S.C. 2656 note); and
- prohibiting admission to the United States under section 212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)).
The legislation also authorizes $7.4 million for two radio stations, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia, to allow Tibetans to hear American opinions about reincarnation, and other political matters.
President Trump’s trade war was only the beginning. The Chinese are obviously messing with the wrong US Congress.