[BlogEntry] The Dalai Lama to Retire?

Wow.

I suppose that's not a complete surprise, the man is 71 and has done nothing but travel around the world constantly for nearly 50 years. There are some important things to note, however, for the confused:

The Dalai Lama is both the religious leader of Buddhism as well as the political leader of Tibet. He is retiring from the latter. He cannot retire from the former, as the position is to believed to be one of reincarnation. You can't stop being the Dalai Lama, in that sense. You can, however, hand over the political reigns of the Tibetan cause.

If anybody's ever wondered about the state of Tibet inside of China, read the article. The successor to the Dalai Lama is supposedly chosen by the #2 man, the Panchen Lama (similar to "vice president", I'd guess). So what do the Chinese do? They kidnapped the Panchen Lama (who disappeared over 10 years ago) and put their own man in his place. So when the time comes to appoint a new leader of Tibet, the Chinese have rigged the system so that they'll be able to decide who gets the position. China's always made it very clear that they don't do the whole freedom of religion thing. It's actually quite sad that in our lifetime we've already seen a Dalai Lama who spent nearly his entire life outside of the country he rules, and may soon see the appointment of a successor who has never been there to begin with. If the Chinese have their way, there will eventually be no more Tibet to go home to.