State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5

State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 (simplified Chinese: 国家宗教事务局令第5号; traditional Chinese: 國家宗教事務局令第5號), officially named Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism (simplified Chinese: 藏传佛教活佛转世管理办法; traditional Chinese: 藏傳佛教活佛轉世管理辦法), is an order passed during a conference of the State Administration for Religious Affairs^[1] on 13 July 2007, marked for implementation on 1 September 2007.

Order No. 5 states that a Reincarnation Application must be filed by all Buddhist temples in that country before they are allowed to recognize individuals as tulkus (reincarnated teachers).^[2]

Tibetan Buddhists maintain that lamas and other spiritual leaders can consciously influence their rebirths, and often are reborn many times to continue their spiritual pursuits. These tulkus are referred to in sources translated from Chinese as living Buddhas.

The order is based on the prior decree entitled Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Improving Several Issues Concerning Religious Work(《中共中央、国务院关于进一步做好宗教工作若干问题的通知》》) published in 1991,^[3] which emphasizes the party's control over religious issues.