1939: Tibet

The long search that has been going on for a successor to the thirteenth Dalai Lama, who died in 1933, ended in February 1939, when it was announced that three six-year-old boys had been found, all of whom were born at the time the Dalai Lama died, and that the usual ritual would be carried out to determine which child was the reincarnation of the late ruler. Two of the children were discovered near Lhasa, and another in the Province of Kokonor, or Chinghai, northeast of Tibet. At Lhasa, in October 1939, in a colorful and mystic ceremonial, the names of the three boys were written on pieces of paper which were rolled up and placed in a golden urn. Then, amid burning incense and the chanting of Buddhist scriptures by high lama priests, one of the rolls of paper was withdrawn from the urn by a Chinese envoy from the Chungking Government, while the three small candidates, with shaven heads, and attired in splendid red robes, stood by in silent wonderment. The name on the roll was that of the boy from Kokonor, son of a prosperous landowner and cattle herder, named Tanchu, who was thereupon proclaimed the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Lama Tanchu, though born in the Chinese Province of Chinghai, is pure Tibetan. During his minority the child will be under the care and tutelage of Tibetan priests and thoroughly instructed in the Buddhist scriptures, and a regent will rule the country. The present Regent is head of a group which is friendly to China and seeks closer relations with that country. Tibet is nominally a part of China, but relations between the two countries, until late years, have been strained. In February 1939, speaking at Chungking, a high official of the Chinese Government referred to Tibet as one of the great 'back territories,' upon whose resources China could rely. The attitude of the Chinese Government towards Tibet, while entirely friendly, is firm. Although China is willing to allow Tibet full control over its internal religious and political affairs, it is urged that foreign relations, international trade and defense should be under the jurisdiction of the National Government of China. A Chinese radio station in Lhasa is now in constant communication with Chungking. A Chinese school, the first of its kind in that country has been established and others are to follow, where the rudiments of a modern education will be taught.