Reting Rinpoche
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Reting Rinpoche (Tibetan: རྭ་སྒྲེང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; Wylie: rwa-sgreng rin-po-che; ZWPY: Razheng) is the title held by abbots of Reting Monastery, a Buddhist monastery in central Tibet. The identity of the present Reting Rinpoche is contested.
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[edit] History of the lineage
Historically, the Reting Rinpoche has occasionally acted as the selector of the new Dalai Lama incarnation. It is for this reason that most observers believe the Chinese government has tried to install a sympathetic figure in the position.[1].
[edit] Regency of the Fifth Reting Rinpoche
The fifth Reting Rinpoche, Thupten Jampel Yishey Gyantsen (Tibetan: ཐུབ་བསྟན་འཇམ་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་; Wylie: thub-bstan 'jam-dpal ye-shes rgyal-mtshan), played a significant role in Tibetan history as the one-time regent of the present Dalai Lama. He was replaced in 1941 and subsequently is alleged to have organized an uprising against his replacement. He died in 1947 in the prisons of Lhasa's Potala, apparently the victim of poisoning[2]. His jailor also allegedly reported that his testicles were bound and beaten until he died of the pain.[3]
The episode exposed a number of the political dimensions of the religious hierarchy in Lhasa. Critics of the fifth Reting Rinpoche accused him of widespread corruption, and involvement with married women as a monk.[4]. Defenders alleged that his imprisonment was partly the result of his attraction to the teachings of the Nyingma lineage, a politically sensitive orientation,[5] and that the case against him had been fabricated by the cabinet minister Kapshopa.[6]
His charming personality, imprisonment and death feature significantly in Martin Scorsese's movie Kundun.
[edit] Present situation
There were two claimants to the position of 6th Reting Rinpoche. The first was appointed by the Tibetan government after the death of the Fifth, and left behind when the government fled to India in 1959. He died in 1997, and was followed by a 7th appointed by the Chinese government and not considered legitimate by religious authorities.[7].
The other 6th Reting Rinpoche claims that the Tibetan government continued to suppress the Reting lineage after the death of the 5th by appointing an illegitimate candidate and then abandoning him in Tibet.[8] He presently resides in an undisclosed location in India.
[edit] See also
- Gelug lineage
- Dalai Lama
- Reting Monastery
[edit] Notes
- ^ Control of Tibet a Question of Faith, January 19, 2000, from World Tibet Network News
- ^ Goldstein M., op.cit., Ch.14 - The Reting Conspiracy - Reting's Death, pp. 510-516.
- ^ Kimura, Hisao. Japanese Agent in Tibet: My Ten Years of Travel in Disguise. Serindia Publications. London:1990.pg 202.[1]
- ^ Marcello, Patricia Cronin The Dalai Lama: A Biography. Greenwood Press: 2003
- ^ Gyatso, Lobsang. Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama Snow Lion Publications. Ithica: 1998. Page 235
- ^ Kimura, Hisao. Japanese Agent in Tibet: My Ten Years of Travel in Disguise. Serindia Publications. London:1990.pg 202.[2]
- ^ Beijing Discovers Another "Living Buddha", January 11, 2000, from World Tibet Network News
- ^ Open Letter to the 14th Dalai Lama, by the 6th Reting Hutuku, Reting.org.[3]
[edit] References
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1991). A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State. University of California Press. ISBN 0520075900.
[edit] External links
- Further biographical info about the fifth Reting Rinpoche, Thupten Jampel Yishey Gyantsen.
- Reting.org Website purporting to be that of an India-based claimant to the title of 6th Reting Rinpoche. Many references to material on the so-called Reting Conspiracy can be found here.
