A bizarre dispute involving the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party has broken out at China's annual meeting of parliament.

Tibetan Buddhists believe the soul of a senior lama is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death.

But the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has suggested he will not be reincarnated when he dies, prompting atheists of the Communist party to demand the tradition must continue.

The message was conveyed at a meeting on the sidelines of the China's National People's Congress in Beijing.

The head of Tibet's regional congress, Padma Choling, said that the Dalai Lama has to return, just as he has done for generations.

"Whether [the Dalai Lama] wants to cease reincarnation or not ... this decision is not up to him," Mr Padma said.

"When he became the 14th Dalai Lama, it was not his decision.

"He was chosen following a strict system dictated by religious rules and historical tradition and also with the approval of the central government.

"Can he decide when to stop reincarnating? That is impossible. What he wants is to distort reality. It's impossible in my view. Tibetan Buddhism follows tradition. If he goes ahead with this there will be division."

This debate has nothing to do with Buddhism and everything to do with power.

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China accuses Dalai Lama of 'profaning' Buddhism by signalling end to reincarnation

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior Tibetan official on Monday slammed the Dalai Lama's recent claim that the Tibetan Buddhism tradition of reincarnation should cease with his death, saying that the religion and history should be respected.

Padma Choling, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress, also stressed that door for dialogue with the 14th Dalai Lama is "always open."

But he added that as to how the dialogue would be held and what to discuss totally depend on the Dalai Lama's attitude.

To regain his waning influence, the monk said in December that his traditional religious role should cease with his death, a claim that is against the Tibetan Buddhism tradition as the soul of a senior lama is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death.

The move is expected to upset the reincarnation system that has been honored for hundreds of years in Tibet and destabilize the Buddhist region.

The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should follow strict historical conventions and required religious rituals of the Tibetan Buddhism and should also be approved by the central government, Padma Choling said.

"It's not up to the Dalai Lama," he noted.

"What he said is blasphemy against the Tibetan Buddhism," the official said after a panel discussion with other Tibetan lawmakers at China's annual parliamentary session in Beijing.

The year of 2015 is expected to be eventful for the southwestern Chinese autonomous region, as it ushers in crucial anniversaries and strives for development.

In September, China will observe the 50th anniversary of the founding of Tibet Autonomous Region.

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Tibetan official defends reincarnation system, slams Dalai Lama

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Spirituality & Practice : Map: Zen Buddhism

SACRAMENTO It's quiet at the California Capitol.

While activity traditionally lags in the first few months of a legislative session, it's downright sleepy at the statehouse.

------------ FOR THE RECORD: Capitol scene: On the Monday Business page of the March 2 Section A, a Capitol Business Beat column about the relative quiet in Sacramento said that revised term limits gave elected officials more time in the Legislature, up to 12 years. The law allows lawmakers to spend a maximum of 12 years in one house of the Legislature, either the Senate or the Assembly. But it also reduced from 14 years to 12 years the total combined time that can be served in both houses. ------------

Lawmakers including scores of freshmen are still proposing plenty of bills 2,297 as of Friday's deadline for new legislation. But the usually camera-hungry politicians are holding fewer news conferences to tout proposals such as protecting consumer privacy and banning chewing tobacco at baseball games.

And Gov. Jerry Brown, who was handily reelected to a fourth and final term, is spending most of his time in his office working on the agenda he set in his state of the state speech in January. The governor wants more renewable energy projects, a controversial high-speed rail line and a replumbing of water facilities to ship water from Northern to Southern California.

Brown is no flashy politician. He has little taste for the Hollywood-style media events favored by his action-hero predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Veteran state politics watchers say they're dumbfounded by the Sacramento slo-mo.

The lack of electricity in the air around the Capitol is "eerie," says Barbara O'Connor, a professor emeritus of political science and communications at Cal State Sacramento. O'Connor said she was amazed last week at the few people she saw at a restaurant popular with legislators and lobbyists. The stillness, she said, "could be good or could be bad, nobody knows. But it's not normal."

The Capitol's quiet atmosphere perhaps is the result of Brown's philosophic style of governing and a certain contemplativeness that borrows from his time at a Jesuit seminary and his studies of Zen Buddhism in Japan in later years.

"The governor sets the tone in Sacramento, not the Legislature," said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a speech writer for Gov. Pete Wilson in the early 1990s.

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California Legislature hits a lull