The Dalai Lama has confirmed that he will have a successor after his death, continuing a centuries-old tradition that has become a flashpoint in the struggle between Tibet and China’s Communist Party over the region’s future.
Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader made the declaration on Wednesday in a video message to religious elders gathered in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, where the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has lived since fleeing Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” he said in the pre-recorded message, referring to repeated requests over the years from Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists urging him to do so.
He added, “The Gaden Phodrang Trust (the formal name for the office of the Dalai Lama) has sole authority to recognise the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter.”
He said the office would carry out the procedures for the search and recognition of the next Dalai Lama “in accordance with past tradition,” without providing further details about the process.
The Dalai Lama has previously stated that, around the age of 90, he would consult the high lamas of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan public to re-evaluate whether the institution should continue.
Wednesday’s announcement – delivered just days before his 90th birthday on Sunday – sets the stage for a high-stakes confrontation between Tibetan leaders in exile and China’s atheist Communist Party, which maintains it alone has the authority to approve the next Dalai Lama.
Asked about the statement, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated Beijing’s long-standing position that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation must adhere to Chinese laws and regulations, with the search and identification to take place in China and receive approval from the central government.
In a memoir published in March, the Dalai Lama said his successor would be born in the “free world” outside China and urged his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing.
This could result in the emergence of two rival Dalai Lamas: one chosen by the current Dalai Lama and another backed by the Chinese authorities, according to experts.
“Both the Tibetan exile community and the Chinese government want to influence the future of Tibet, and they see the next Dalai Lama as key to achieving that,” said Ruth Gamble, an expert in Tibetan history at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
Samdhong Rinpoche, a senior official in the Dalai Lama’s office, told reporters on Wednesday that further details about the procedures for identifying the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation would not be disclosed until the succession takes place.
Over a lifetime in exile, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has become synonymous with Tibet and its pursuit of genuine autonomy under Beijing’s tightening control of the Himalayan region.
From his adopted home in Dharamshala, where he established a government-in-exile, the spiritual leader has united Tibetans both inside Tibet and abroad, bringing international attention to their plight.
This has made the Dalai Lama a persistent thorn in the side of Beijing, which denounces him as a dangerous “separatist” and a “wolf in monk’s robes.”
Since the 1970s, the Dalai Lama has maintained that he no longer seeks full independence for Tibet but rather “meaningful” autonomy that would allow Tibetans to preserve their distinct culture, religion, and identity. His nonviolent “Middle Way” approach has earned him global recognition, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama has long been wary of Beijing’s efforts to interfere in the reincarnation system of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhists believe in a cycle of rebirth, and that when an enlightened master such as the Dalai Lama dies, he can choose the time and place of his rebirth through the power of compassion and prayer.
But this religious tradition has increasingly become a battleground for control over the Tibetan people, especially following the contested reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1995, following the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, Beijing appointed its own Panchen Lama, defying the Dalai Lama, whose own chosen candidate – a six-year-old boy – subsequently disappeared from public view.
According to tradition, the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas have historically played key roles in recognising each other’s reincarnations. Experts believe China will attempt to interfere in the current Dalai Lama’s succession in a similar fashion.
“There’s a whole series of high-level reincarnated lamas cultivated by the Chinese government to collaborate with it inside Tibet,” said Gamble. “They will be called upon to help establish the Dalai Lama that Beijing selects. This has been part of a long-term strategy.”
A “resolution of gratitude” issued on Wednesday by Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders gathered in Dharamshala stated they “strongly condemn the People’s Republic of China’s use of the reincarnation issue for political gain” and declared they “will never accept it.”
For his part, the Dalai Lama has made it clear that any candidate appointed by Beijing will lack legitimacy in the eyes of Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism.
“It is totally inappropriate for Chinese Communists, who explicitly reject religion – including the idea of past and future lives – to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama,” he writes in his latest memoir, Voice for the Voiceless.
