China demands red tape for reincarnation

China Regulates Buddhist Reincarnation - Newsweek:

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country.

Time for a Tibetan Irhab wal Kebab methinks? Although arguably the Dalai Lama's decision not to re-incarnate in China-occupied Tibet is almost as ridiculous.