Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is probably the best-known religious leader in the world after the Pope. Many Westerners know him as a smiling monk who speaks about kindness, happiness and dialogue with science, and they know Tibet as a cause: a people in exile and a culture under pressure from the Chinese state. Fewer know what Tibetan Buddhism actually teaches and practices.

This article sets out what Tibetan Buddhism is, how its system of reincarnated teachers works, where the office of the Dalai Lama came from, what the Chinese government has done and claims, and why the succession to the present Dalai Lama is disputed. It then gives the Orthodox Christian answer, fairly to Tibetans and firmly on the truth.

In brief

Tibetan Buddhism is the main living form of Vajrayana, the "thunderbolt vehicle," a tantric form of Mahayana Buddhism that promises buddhahood in a single lifetime through initiation, mantras and visualizing oneself as a deity. Its orders (Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Geluk) are led in part by tulkus, teachers recognized as reincarnations of their predecessors, a system that began with the Karmapas in the thirteenth century. The title Dalai Lama was given by the Mongol ruler Altan Khan to the Geluk teacher Sonam Gyatso in 1578; from 1642 the Dalai Lamas also ruled Tibet. The fourteenth, Tenzin Gyatso, born in 1935, fled to India in 1959, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and gave up political authority in 2011. The People's Republic of China claims the right to approve all reincarnations, holds the boy the Dalai Lama recognized as Panchen Lama in 1995, and says it will choose the next Dalai Lama. In 2025 the Dalai Lama declared that only his own trust may do so. Christians should defend Tibetans against coercion and speak plainly about their suffering. But the Orthodox Church holds that reincarnation, deity yoga and the worship of tantric deities and protectors are false, and that the compassion Tibetans rightly prize is fulfilled only in Christ.

Thesis: Tibetan Buddhism is far more than the gentle ethic of its Western image; it is a tantric religion of initiation, deity identification and reincarnation whose claims the Christian faith must reject, even while Christians stand with Tibetans against state control of their religion.

What Vajrayana is

Ronald Davidson, a specialist in Indian tantric Buddhism, explains in the Encyclopedia of Buddhism that Vajrayana is "the final form of Buddhism to evolve in India," a term attested from the eighth century, whose scriptures are the tantras. Ordinary Mahayana teaches that buddhahood takes three incalculable eons. The "method of mantras" claims to give "buddhahood in this very body." To do so, "the yogin visualizes buddhas, bodhisattvas, or esoteric divinities either before him or identical to himself, recites mantras associated with such figures, and employs breathing techniques and other forms of physical yoga to accelerate the process of identification."¹

The Dalai Lama's own office describes this "deity yoga" in the same way. Its introduction to the Kalachakra initiation says that the tantric method for attaining a Buddha's form "is just the deity yoga of meditating on oneself as having an aspect similar to that of a Form Body" of a Buddha, and quotes the Geluk founder Tsongkhapa: "One meditates from the present on oneself as having a divine mansion, a divine entourage, divine ritual implements, and the divine deeds of purifying the cosmos and its inhabitants, just like a Buddha."² Entry into this path requires initiation by a guru. The same page explains that one of the Kalachakra initiations empowers the disciple "to achieve the magic powers of pacification, gaining prosperity, subjugation, and destruction."²

The higher tantras add an inner yoga of channels, winds and drops in a subtle body. Davidson and Charles Orzech note that in these practices the meditator "may imagine a flame below the navel or various lights in the wheels or employ a female sexual partner as a physical aid to harness the psychophysical process."³ They add that monastic Buddhism tended to replace the overt practices of the wandering tantric adepts with "visualized or covert forms," but the practice belongs to the system's own texts. These are the "tantra" and "deity yoga" that rarely appear in the Western picture of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tulkus: the reincarnation of teachers

Tibetan Buddhism shares the general Buddhist belief in rebirth (see If Buddhism Teaches "No Self," What Gets Reborn?). Its distinctive feature is the formal recognition of reincarnate teachers, tulkus. In a long statement of 24 September 2011, the fourteenth Dalai Lama explained the system in his own words. Ordinary beings are reborn by the force of karma, he wrote, but "superior Bodhisattvas" are reborn "due to the power of their compassion for sentient beings and based on their prayers to benefit others." He dates the formal system to "the early 13th century with the recognition of Karmapa Pagshi as the reincarnation of Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa." Lines of tulkus now exist in all the Tibetan traditions, female as well as male.⁴

He describes how candidates are found: letters left by the predecessor, a child's memories, recognition of the predecessor's possessions, divination by trusted masters, "seeking the predictions of mundane oracles, who appear through mediums in trance," and visions in the sacred lake Lhamoi Latso. He is also frank about abuses: "It is also evident that amongst these Tulkus some are a disgrace," and "some of them" have been recognized "for political motives."⁴

Where the Dalai Lama came from

The office is younger than many assume. Gareth Sparham writes that "The name Dalai Lama was first used by Altan Khan, a Tumed Mongolian chieftain, for his teacher Bsod nams (Sonam) rgya mtsho (1543-1588)." Dalai is Mongolian for "ocean," translating the Tibetan gyatso. Sonam Gyatso's followers then named two earlier Geluk teachers as his previous incarnations, so he became the third Dalai Lama.⁵ The meeting with Altan Khan took place in 1578.⁶

{{very-strong: The title "Dalai Lama" was first given by the Mongol ruler Altan Khan to Sonam Gyatso in 1578, and the first two Dalai Lamas were named after their deaths.}}

The "Great Fifth" Dalai Lama established the Gaden Phodrang government in 1642, and the Dalai Lamas became rulers of Tibet as well as teachers.⁴ The Dalai Lamas came to be regarded as emanations of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and the Fifth gave his teacher the title Panchen Lama.⁵ After a war with the Gurkhas (1791-93), the Manchu Qing court proposed choosing high lamas by drawing lots from a golden urn. The present Dalai Lama writes that the urn was truly used to choose only one Dalai Lama, the eleventh, and that "This system was imposed by the Manchus, but Tibetans had no faith in it because it lacked any spiritual quality."⁴

The fourteenth Dalai Lama

According to his office, Tenzin Gyatso was born on 6 July 1935 to a farming family in Taktser, Amdo, and named Lhamo Dhondup; he was recognized at the age of two.⁷ Sparham adds that he was enthroned in Lhasa in 1940, after payment of a large ransom to a local Chinese warlord.⁵ In 1950, as the Chinese army entered Tibet, he was asked to assume political power at fifteen. In 1959, after the suppression of the Lhasa uprising, he escaped to India; about 100,000 Tibetans followed him into exile.⁵ He has lived since in Dharamsala, democratized the exile administration, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and in 2011 handed his political authority to an elected leader.⁷

His office describes three main commitments: promoting human values he calls "secular ethics or universal values," encouraging harmony among religions, and preserving Tibetan culture. On religion it says that "The idea that there is one truth and one religion is relevant to the individual practitioner," but that for the wider community "there is a need to recognise that human beings observe several religions and several aspects of the truth."⁸

China, the Panchen Lama and the succession

The Chinese government tells a different story. Its 2009 white paper on Tibet states that "Before the democratic reform in 1959, Tibet had been a society of feudal serfdom under theocracy," and presents Chinese rule as liberation.⁹ Tibet's old order did have deep problems; Sparham notes that the thirteenth Dalai Lama's attempts at reform failed "because of entrenched conservatism and vested interests."⁵ But the record of what followed is grave. In 1962 the tenth Panchen Lama, then serving in the Chinese government, submitted a petition of some seventy thousand characters on the suffering of Tibetans and asked for real religious freedom; it led to his imprisonment for ten years.¹⁰

In 2007 China's State Administration for Religious Affairs issued "Order No. 5," measures for managing the reincarnation of "living Buddhas," in force from 1 September 2007. Every recognition now needs state approval, and Article 2 states: "Reincarnating living Buddhas shall not be interfered with or be under the dominion of any foreign organization or individual." Article 8 requires the golden urn where it was historically used.¹¹ The Dalai Lama called the measures "outrageous and disgraceful."⁴

The test case came earlier. In May 1995 the Dalai Lama recognized a six-year-old boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the eleventh Panchen Lama. China rejected the choice and later that year installed another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu.¹⁰ Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family were taken into custody in May 1995. In 2020 China's foreign ministry said he was living a "normal life" with a job; his condition cannot be independently checked.¹²

{{strong: The boy the Dalai Lama recognized as Panchen Lama in 1995 was taken into state custody that year, and China installed its own candidate.}}

In 2011 the Dalai Lama said that at about ninety he would decide whether the office should continue, and that "no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People's Republic of China."⁴ On 2 July 2025, shortly before his ninetieth birthday, his office published a statement: "I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue," and "the Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation."¹³ China's foreign ministry answered the same day: "The Dalai Lama's reincarnation must follow the principles of domestic recognition, the 'Golden Urn' process, and approval by the central government."¹⁴ This sets the stage for rival claimants after his death.

The Western image and the teaching

In the West the Dalai Lama is heard mostly on compassion, happiness and science, and his office speaks of "secular ethics." That message is sincere, but it is the public edge of a religion whose center is tantric initiation and deity yoga, whose reincarnations are confirmed through oracles "in trance," and whose search for the next Dalai Lama is to consult "the reliable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who are linked inseparably to the lineage of the Dalai Lamas."⁴ The statement says that advice and direction are to be sought "from these concerned beings."

The same system gives the guru great authority over the disciple, and Tibetan Buddhists themselves have faced its abuse. After eight students of Sogyal Rinpoche (Sogyal Lakar), spiritual director of the Rigpa charity, wrote a letter of complaint in 2017, an investigation by the law firm Lewis Silkin, commissioned by the charity, found that some members of his "inner circle" had "been subjected to serious physical, sexual and emotional abuse by him." The Charity Commission for England and Wales, which opened a statutory inquiry into the charity in November 2018, quoted these findings in its 2020 report, including the finding that senior individuals in the charity had been aware of at least some of these issues and failed to address them.¹⁵ This does not define the whole tradition, but it shows that absolute devotion to a teacher is a real risk within it.

The Orthodox answer

Rebirth or resurrection

The tulku system stands on reincarnation, and the Christian faith rejects reincarnation. "it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).¹⁶ Each human being is one person, soul and body, created once and loved as that person forever. In the Creed the Church confesses: "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."¹⁷ The hope is not a new body in another life but the raising of this body, transfigured, by Christ (see What Happens to the Soul After Death?). St Irenaeus answered the transmigration doctrine of his day by noting that "souls remember nothing whatever of the events which took place in their previous states of existence."¹⁸ The Dalai Lama appeals to children's memories as evidence; but such reports are anecdotal, the recognition process also relies on divination and oracles, and he himself admits that some recognitions were political.

Deity yoga or theosis

Deity yoga trains the practitioner to see himself as a Buddha with a divine palace and retinue. Some compare this with the Orthodox teaching of theosis, that we become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). The resemblance is only verbal. In theosis a creature receives by grace a share in the life and energies of the uncreated God, never His essence, and always remains a creature; it is given in Christ through Baptism, the Eucharist and the life of repentance, not produced by visualization (see What Is Theosis?). Imagining oneself as divine is the opposite of the humility through which the saints were deified.

Deities, protectors and oracles

The Church cannot regard the deities invoked in tantra, the oath-bound protectors and the spirits that speak through oracles as neutral. St Paul taught that "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons" (1 Corinthians 10:20). This is a judgment about the spirits invoked, not about the Tibetan people, who are seeking help and protection in good faith. Christians must not take tantric initiations, use these rites or consult such oracles.

Compassion and truth

The Dalai Lama's view that there are "several religions and several aspects of the truth" is generous in tone, but the Church cannot accept it. Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6), and the apostles preached that "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Compassion is rightly prized in Tibetan Buddhism. In the Gospel it is not the virtue of an enlightened mind but the love of the Son of God, who took flesh, died and rose so that death itself is destroyed. The Church's word to Tibetan Buddhists, as to all people, is an invitation to faith in Christ and to Baptism (see Is Christianity Just One Religion Among Many?).

Standing with Tibetans

None of this justifies what the Chinese state has done. An atheist government that claims the right to approve reincarnations, has held since 1995 a boy taken into custody at six without allowing any independent check on him, and plans to install its own Dalai Lama is using religion as an instrument of control. Christians can and should defend Tibetans' freedom to believe and practice without granting that their religion is true.

Objections and replies

"Tibetan Buddhism is a science of the mind, not a religion."

The Dalai Lama's dialogue with scientists is real, but his own statements describe initiations, deities, protectors, oracles and rebirth. A system that consults "mundane oracles, who appear through mediums in trance" is a religion.

"Children remember past lives, so reincarnation is proven."

The Dalai Lama calls tulku recognition "an authentic mode of investigation based on people's recollection of their past lives."⁴ Yet recognitions also depend on divination, oracle predictions, lake visions and, by his own admission, sometimes politics. Children's reports are not controlled evidence, and the Church's teaching rests on Christ's resurrection, not on such anecdotes.

"Deity yoga is the Buddhist version of theosis."

Theosis is God's gift to a creature who remains a creature; deity yoga is a technique by which a practitioner identifies with a Buddha who is not a Creator at all. They differ in source, means and goal.

What we can say confidently

• Tibetan Buddhism is a tantric (Vajrayana) form of Mahayana Buddhism whose central methods include initiation, mantras and deity yoga.
• The formal recognition of tulkus began with the Karmapas in the thirteenth century; the title Dalai Lama dates from 1578, and the Dalai Lamas ruled Tibet from 1642.
• The fourteenth Dalai Lama was born in 1935, fled to India in 1959, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and gave up political authority in 2011.
• China's 2007 measures require state approval of reincarnations; the Dalai Lama's 1995 Panchen Lama candidate has been in custody since that year; in 2025 the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government each claimed sole authority over the next Dalai Lama.
• The Orthodox Church rejects reincarnation, deity yoga and the invocation of tantric deities and protectors as false, and confesses Christ as the only Savior.

What remains disputed

• How to judge Tibet's society and government before 1950, between the Chinese state's account and Tibetan and Western historians.
• How often the golden urn was truly used, and with what effect, in past recognitions.
• The present condition of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, which cannot be independently checked.
• {{debated: What will happen when the fourteenth Dalai Lama dies, and whether any successor will be widely accepted.}}

Conclusion

Tibetan Buddhism has given its people endurance, learning and a deep sense of compassion through a hard century, and the Dalai Lama has borne exile with patience. Christians should honor that and defend Tibetans against a state that wants to control their religion.

But honoring people is not agreeing with their faith. The Orthodox Church cannot accept reincarnation, the invocation of protector spirits or the visualization of oneself as divine. She proclaims instead the One whom the prophets foretold: Jesus Christ, who was born once, died once and rose bodily, and who gives those united to Him not another life on the wheel of rebirth but eternal life in God.

Notes

1. Ronald M. Davidson, "Vajrayāna," in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell Jr. (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004), via Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vajrayana.
2. Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Introduction to the Kalachakra," https://www.dalailama.com/teachings/kalachakra-initiations (read through the Internet Archive copy, https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.dalailama.com/teachings/kalachakra-initiations).
3. Ronald M. Davidson and Charles D. Orzech, "Tantra," in Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), via Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tantra.
4. Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "Reincarnation" (statement of 24 September 2011), Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/reincarnation/rebirth-recognition-tradition-2011-09-24 (read through the Internet Archive copy).
5. Gareth Sparham, "Dalai Lama," in Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), via Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dalai-lama.
6. Monica Piotter, "First Dalai Lama Becomes Buddhist Spiritual Leader," EBSCO Research Starters, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/first-dalai-lama-becomes-buddhist-spiritual-leader.
7. Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Brief Biography," https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/brief-biography (read through the Internet Archive copy).
8. Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Three Main Commitments," https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/three-main-commitments (read through the Internet Archive copy).
9. Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, "Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet" (March 2009), as published by Beijing Review, https://www.bjreview.com/special/2009-03/04/content_566206.htm.
10. Gareth Sparham, "Panchen Lama," in Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), via Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/panchen-lama.
11. State Administration for Religious Affairs, "Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism" (State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5, adopted 13 July 2007, issued 18 July 2007, in force 1 September 2007), Articles 2, 8 and 14, translation by the International Campaign for Tibet, as posted by ecoi.net, https://www.ecoi.net/en/document/270456.
12. "As Rubio joins chorus for his release, who is 11th Panchen Lama in Chinese detention for 30 yrs now," ThePrint, May 2025, https://theprint.in/world/as-rubio-joins-chorus-for-his-release-who-is-11th-panchen-lama-in-chinese-detention-for-30-yrs-now/2630662.
13. Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "Statement Affirming the Continuation of the Institution of Dalai Lama" (published 2 July 2025; the text is signed Dharamshala, 21 May 2025), Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/reincarnation/statement-affirming-the-continuation-of-the-institution-of-dalai-lama-july-2-2025 (read through the Internet Archive copy).
14. Press Trust of India, "China rejects the Dalai Lama's succession plan, insists his heir requires its approval," ThePrint, 2 July 2025, https://theprint.in/world/china-rejects-the-dalai-lamas-succession-plan-insists-his-heir-requires-its-approval/2677506.
15. Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity inquiry: Rigpa Fellowship" (20 November 2020, amended 30 December 2020), quoting the executive summary of the Lewis Silkin LLP report of 22 August 2018 (the page was archived on 6 January 2023 under the Commission's policy for reports over two years old), https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-rigpa-fellowship/charity-inquiry-rigpa-fellowship.
16. Hebrews 9:27; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 Corinthians 10:20; John 14:6; Acts 4:12 (NKJV), https://www.biblegateway.com/.
17. The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed), Orthodox Church in America, https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/prayers/symbol-of-faith.
18. St Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 2.33.1, trans. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut, ANF 1, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103233.htm.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
• The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed). Orthodox Church in America.
• Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies. Trans. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.

Sources from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition

• Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. "Reincarnation." Statement of 24 September 2011.
• Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. "Statement Affirming the Continuation of the Institution of Dalai Lama." 2025.
• Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. "Brief Biography"; "Three Main Commitments"; "Introduction to the Kalachakra." dalailama.com.

Scholarship and reference

• Davidson, Ronald M. "Vajrayāna." In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell Jr. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004.
• Davidson, Ronald M., and Charles D. Orzech. "Tantra." In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004.
• Sparham, Gareth. "Dalai Lama." In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004.
• Sparham, Gareth. "Panchen Lama." In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004.
• Piotter, Monica. "First Dalai Lama Becomes Buddhist Spiritual Leader." EBSCO Research Starters.

Government documents and reporting

• State Administration for Religious Affairs (PRC). "Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism." Order No. 5, 2007. Trans. International Campaign for Tibet.
• Information Office of the State Council (PRC). "Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet." 2009.
• Charity Commission for England and Wales. "Charity inquiry: Rigpa Fellowship." 2020.
• Press Trust of India. "China rejects the Dalai Lama's succession plan, insists his heir requires its approval." ThePrint, 2 July 2025.
• "As Rubio joins chorus for his release, who is 11th Panchen Lama in Chinese detention for 30 yrs now." ThePrint, May 2025.