The catch that always seems to bring this heavenly process down into the dirt is “identifying” the reincarnated lama. China’s rhetoric, if you look closely, is all about ensuring outside countries don’t interfere in that process. They are trying to assert that only they have the ability to recognize when the reincarnation has taken place, and who it is. Not that they can control who it is.

I know, it’s bullshit. But “people get hung up on bullshit” is a shortened history of human civilization.