The elderly Dalai Lama assured his followers yesterday that upon his death he would be reincarnated as the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and spelt out a succession process that sets up a renewed clash with China.
The eagerly awaited statement, made days before the frail Nobel peace laureate turns 90, puts to rest speculation, started by the Dalai Lama himself, that he may be the last of Tibet’s spiritual leaders, ending a line that stretches back centuries. Speaking during a week of celebrations in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala to mark his birthday, the Dalai Lama said a non-profit institution he has set up will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation, countering China’s insistence that it will choose his successor.
Beijing reiterated yesterday that it had to approve the reincarnation and that it had to be done in China through a centuries-old ritual. Beijing views the Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, as a separatist. The Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. In previous years, he had also said it was possible that there might be no successor at all.
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