C’mon, admit it. You too, raised an eyebrow when the Dalai Lama proposed that his successor might be democratically chosen from a field of monastic candidates.
In today’s paper, Beijing plays the part of reactionary:
"The Chinese government has a policy of religious freedom and respects Tibetan Buddhism’s religious rituals and historic conventions," said [Chinese Foreign Ministry] spokesman Liu Jianchao.
"The Dalai Lama’s related actions clearly violate established religious rituals and historic conventions and therefore cannot be accepted," he told a regular news conference, without elaborating.
It’s a bad thing to violate established religious rituals and historic conventions? Well then, I’m sure Mr. Liu is outraged by Beijing’s recent decision to ban reincarnation without government approval. Yes sir, any day now we can all expect Mr. Liu to publicly denounce that little violation of "religious rituals and historic conventions", can’t we?
Mr. Liu, you say Beijing believes in religious freedom? THEN BUTT OUT. If Buddhists want to change their traditions, let ’em hash it out amongst themselves. The State has many legitimate jobs – but micromanaging religious affairs isn’t one of them.