With the launch on Monday of a new online system containing 870 Living Buddhas, the Chinese government has tightened regulations regarding the identities of Tibetan Buddhist leaders in an effort to aid the public in differentiating real religious figures from fake ones, as reported by the Global Times.
"The system will strike a heavy blow to the Dalai Lama, as he has been utilizing his religious status to ratify Living Buddhas at will, which is against religious tradition, in an attempt to control Tibetan monasteries and divide the country," said Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference's Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.
The Living Buddha inquiry system can be accessed through the official websites of the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Buddhist Association of China (BAC). It is also accessible through the news site www.tibet.cn.
According to a Monday report by the Xinhua News Agency, people are able to view the profiles of 870 verified Living Buddhas through the system.
The online system gives detailed information on Living Buddhas, including their photos, legal names, monastic titles, links to religious schools, numbers of Living Buddha certificates and the monasteries where they reside, according to the BAC.
This launch is the first time that the personal information of China's religious leaders can be accessed online.
It is an effort to promote transparency and regulate reincarnation issues for Living Buddhas, said Seventh Drukhang Living Buddha Drukhang Thubten Khedrup, vice president of the BAC, at the system's launch on Monday.
Some people have been discovered to have disguised themselves as Living Buddhas to swindle followers out of money in recent years. This has harmed believers' interests and damaged the reputation of Living Buddhas and Tibetan Buddhism as a whole, said the Drukhang.
A well-known case was when Wu Darong, who falsely claimed to be a Living Buddha, "ordained" well-known Chinese actor Zhang Tielin in Hong Kong.
The reincarnation of Living Buddhas has been used by Tibetan Buddhists since the 13 century A.D. Between 1653 and 1713, the emperors of China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) established a system wherein lots were drawn from a golden urn to confirm the Living Buddha succession.
In 2010, the BAC began issuing certificates to Living Buddhas.