China spends big in Tibet to avert a crisis when the Dalai Lama dies
LHASA, China — China is pouring billions of dollars into Tibet as Beijing seeks to cement its control before the succession struggle that is likely to follow the death of the Dalai Lama. The massive infrastructure projects include new airports and highways that cut through the world’s highest mountains, with planned investment totaling $97 billion.
The investment plan aims to protect Tibetan Buddhism's holy sites while building a sustainable “green economy" that safeguards the fragile environment that is an average elevation of 13,000 feet above sea level. According to official figures, China has also already spent over $450 million renovating Tibet’s major monasteries and other religious sites since the 1980s. An additional $290 million has been budgeted for the next five years.
The huge investment by China comes as the officially atheist country increasingly tries to enhance its image by casting itself as the largest nation of Buddhist believers. China claims some 300 million Buddhists of various schools, of which Tibetan Buddhism is one.
With the Dalai Lama now 83, many Tibetans fear that China will use the succession issue to split Tibetan Buddhism, with a new Dalai Lama named by exiles and another by the government after his death. China says it must approve the next Dalai Lama, and the Dalai Lama has said his biggest concern is that China will try to name his successor. In 1995, after the Dalai Lama named a boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, China put the boy under house arrest and installed another instead.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-spends-big-tibet-avert-crisis-when-dalai-lama-dies-n904676
