China has tightened its regulation of the identities of Tibetan Buddhist leaders with the launch of an online system containing profiles of 870 Living Buddhas on Monday to help the public differentiate real religious figures from the fakes.
"The system will strike a heavy blow to the Dalai Lama, as he has been utilizing his religious status to ratify Living Buddhas at will - which is against religious tradition - in an attempt to control Tibetan monasteries and divide the country," Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference's Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, told the Global Times on Monday.
The Living Buddha inquiry system can be found through the official websites of the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) as well as news site www.tibet.cn. People will be able to view the profiles of 870 verified Living Buddhas through the system, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
According to the BAC, the online system gives detailed information on Living Buddhas, including their photos, legal names, monastic titles, links to religious schools, numbers of Living Buddha certificates and monasteries of residence.
The launch marks the first time that the personal information of the country's religious leaders can be accessed via the Internet. Seventh Drukhang Living Buddha Drukhang Thubten Khedrup, the BAC's vice-president, said at the system's launch ceremony on Monday that it is an effort to promote transparency and regulate reincarnation issues for Living Buddhas.
In recent years, some people have been found to be using the guise of Living Buddhas to swindle followers out of money, which has harmed believers' interests and damaged the reputation of Tibetan Buddhism and Living Buddhas, he said.
One of the most well-known cases involved Wu Darong, who falsely claimed to be a Living Buddha and "ordained" famous Chinese actor Zhang Tielin in Hong Kong.
Reincarnation of Living Buddhas is a unique inheritance system in Tibetan Buddhism that originated in the 13th century AD. Between 1653 and 1713, the emperors of China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) established a system of drawing lots from a golden urn to confirm the succession of the Living Buddha. The BAC began issuing certificates to Living Buddhas in 2010.
