The inaugural issue of India’s World magazine featured a well-researched article titled “Democracy in Exile: The Uncertain Fate of the Tibetan People,” authored by Mr. Ankit Tiwari. In it, he deftly outlines the challenges waylaying the Tibetan movement on its path ahead.
I, however, respectfully disagree with his deeply pessimistic conclusion that once the current Dalai Lama passes away, Tibetans may “descend into discord and disunity” and “ultimately lose the war.” This view not only underestimates the inherent strength and resilience of a just and righteous cause but also takes for granted the indefinite invincibility of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian regime.
When the Chinese forces invaded Tibet in 1950 and coerced the Tibetan government into signing the 17-Point Peace Agreement, China likely believed the Tibet issue would be settled within a decade or thereabouts. What followed, however, was widespread resistance to Chinese rule, culminating in the popular Tibetan uprising of March 1959 in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
When the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959, China launched brutal mass campaigns, including the Cultural Revolution, aimed at the total annihilation of Tibetan identity within Tibet. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama — joined by tens of thousands of Tibetans — was working to rebuild the entire foundations of Tibetan civilization in India.
This preservation and promotion of Tibetan Buddhism, rooted in the ancient Indian Nalanda tradition, has sparked a cultural renaissance that extends far beyond the Himalayan Buddhist belt. Tibetan Buddhism is now considered a major soft power — so much so that even an atheist CCP is trying to position China as the global capital of Buddhism.
The myriad conflicting ideas that Tiwari observed within the Tibetan diaspora were, in a sense, the fruition of the Dalai Lama’s long-standing efforts to completely democratise the traditional Tibetan theocratic system of governance. As a result, we now already have a political incarnation of the Dalai Lama in the form of Sikyong.
Despite a minuscule Tibetan exile population of around 150,000 scattered across India and abroad, the community has remained remarkably cohesive and organized. Elections for the Sikyong and the Tibetan Parliament are held every five years in over 26 countries, consistently drawing high voter turnout.
Tiwari’s assertion that the Dalai Lama has relinquished the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination is not entirely accurate and must be understood in the proper context. During the formal rounds of talks between the Dalai Lama’s envoys and Chinese government representatives (2002–2010), a key point of contention was the Tibetan side’s core position that Tibet had historically been an independent country.
Given China’s penchant for political shenanigans, the global concern over the reincarnation issue is quite understandable. It is, however, important to acknowledge that the Dalai Lama has already been reincarnated 13 times. While the concept of reincarnation may seem abstract and mysterious to some, for us Tibetans, it can often be as straightforward as a set of “written instructions” specifying both “where” and “to whom”.
In any struggle for freedom, hope is the most powerful driving force. Despite China’s ironclad control over Tibet for more than six decades, it has failed to subdue or win the hearts and minds of Tibetans within Tibet. At their core, Tibetans continue to look toward India — the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration — for hope, solace, and a sense of loyalty. Despite the rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape, one thing remains a historical fact: all authoritarian regimes have an expiration date. We’ve just witnessed one in Syria.
