Tolung (U-tsang), present-day Toelung Dechen, Tibet Autonomous Region Tanag Segme (U-tsang) present-day Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region

Shabtod, near Sakya, now Shigatse (Chinese: Rigaze), Tibet Autonomous Region (formerly U-tsang) The status of the Dalai Lamas birthplaces as tourist attractions is ambiguous while the current Dalai Lama’s childhood home appears in some Chinese-language tourist brochures, access for foreigners is patchy and sometimes restricted.But a number of them, such as the birthplaces of the 13th, 11th and Seventh Dalai Lamas, have been subject to renovation and are still visited by pilgrims.

In contrast to the attention given to the 14th Dalai Lama’s birthplace by the Chinese Party state, the homes of earlier Dalai Lamas in different parts of Tibet are mostly less politically sensitive and in most cases low-profile and little-known.

The Chinese authorities have implemented dramatic redevelopment in and near the remote village and house where the current, 14th, Dalai Lama was born on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau as part of ambitious economic plans for the area.

In several of the Dalai Lamas’ birthplaces, there is the added irony that the renovation now being promoted by the authorities is due to earlier destruction during the Cultural Revolution, and would not have come about without determined efforts of local Tibetans to protect their religious and cultural sites. In exile, the Dalai Lama has described systematic policies and practices of cultural repression and destruction in Tibet as “a sort of cultural genocide”.

Through emphasizing multi-million yuan projects such as the renovation of birthplaces and temples associated with the current and previous Dalai Lamas, the Chinese authorities aim to convey the message that they are protecting Tibet’s heritage.

But inside Tibet, they know they can’t ignore him,” said a Tibetan researcher from Amdo who is now in exile. “Politically, the Chinese authorities condemn the Dalai Lama.

The official recognition and funding for the childhood homes of the Dalai Lamas, particularly the 14th, is even so an implicit acknowledgement of the central role of the 14th Dalai Lama not only in Tibet’s history but also in the present-day, despite the Chinese Party state’s aggressive anti-Dalai Lama campaign.

A state media report stated the authorities’ intention if not to ‘recover’ the entire territory, “at least, the birth place of the Sixth Dalai.”

Consistent with this approach, the Chinese authorities have referred publicly to their imperative of ‘recovering’ the home of the Sixth Dalai Lama, situated outside Tibet in the sensitive border area of Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, India, which Beijing claims as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The Beijing leadership takes the enduring influence of the Dalai Lama seriously and in recent years has stepped up its efforts to strengthen its position as the ‘official’ arbiter of Tibetan Buddhist culture. This is linked to Beijing’s objectives of controlling and managing the successor of the Dalai Lama, notably involving new measures imposed by the atheist Party state aiming to ensure that Tibetan lamas could only be reincarnated with the permission of the government.

The Chinese authorities seek to represent the renovation of the 14th Dalai Lama’s birthplace, and restoration work on other homes of earlier Dalai Lamas, as an assertion of control and ‘ownership’ of the Dalai Lama lineage.This report also presents new information and images of the birthplaces of the previous incarnations of the Dalai Lama in the context of shifting political considerations by the Chinese authorities, both at the national and local levels. This ICT report focuses on the 2.65 m yuan ($427,454) renovation of his birthplace and the dramatic transformation of the area where he lived as a child. The Dalai Lama turned 79 this week, entering his 80th year on July 6.

12th dalai lama