Religion and Politics

The Last Dalai Lama?

In The New York Times Magazine, Pankaj Mishra writes on the precarious position of Tibet and the fate of its religious leader, the Dalai Lama. Once the current Dalai Lama passes away, the responsibility to appoint a successor falls to China. China is an officially atheist state, and it may use its considerable influence to consolidate its socioreligious hegemony over the Tibetan region. Mishra writes of the leader: “Over the previous months he had expressed various versions of a drastic prospect: The institution of the Dalai Lama had outlived its purpose, he said. ‘If it is not needed, then do away with it.'”

Read at The New York Times Magazine

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