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5 min read
Dalai Lama vows he won’t be the last leader of Tibetan Buddhism
By Simone McCarthy and Tenzin Dharpo, CNN
Updated:
6:12 AM EDT, Wed July 2, 2025
Source: CNN
The Dalai Lama has announced that he will have a successor after his
death, continuing a centuries-old tradition that has become a
flashpoint in the struggle with China’s Communist Party over
Tibet’s future.
Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader made the declaration on Wednesday
in a video message to religious elders gathering in Dharamshala, India,
where the Nobel Peace laureate has lived since fleeing Tibet after a
failed uprising against Chinese communist rule in 1959.
“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will
continue,” the Dalai Lama said in the pre-recorded video, citing
requests he received over the years from Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists
urging him to do so.
“The Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future
reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this
matter,” he added, using the formal name for the office of the Dalai
Lama.
The office should carry out the procedures of search and recognition of
the future dalai lama “in accordance with past tradition,” he said,
without revealing further details on the process.
The Dalai Lama has that when he is about 90 years old, he will consult
the high lamas of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan public to
re-evaluate whether the institution of the dalai lama should continue.
Wednesday’s announcement – delivered days before his 90th birthday
this Sunday – sets the stage for a high-stakes battle over his
succession, between Tibetan leaders in exile and China’s atheist
Communist Party, which insists it alone holds the authority to approve
the next dalai lama.
Asked about the Dalai Lama’s statement, a spokesperson for the
Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated Beijing’s long-held stance that
the spiritual leader’s reincarnation must comply with Chinese laws
and regulations, with search and identification conducted in China and
approved by the central government.
In a memoir published in March, the Dalai Lama states that his
successor will be born in the “free world” outside China, urging
his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing.
That could lead to the emergence of two rival dalai lamas: one chosen
by his predecessor, the other by the Chinese Communist Party.
“Both the Tibetan exile community and the Chinese government want to
influence the future of Tibet, and they see the next dalai lama as the
key to do so,” said Ruth Gamble, an expert in Tibetan history at La
Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
Samdhong Rinpoche, a senior official at the Dalai Lama’s office, told
reporters on Wednesday that any further information about the
procedures or methods of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation would not be
revealed to the public until the succession takes place.
Struggle over succession
Over a lifetime in exile, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has
become synonymous with Tibet and its quest for genuine autonomy under
Beijing’s tightening grip on the Himalayan region.
From his adopted hometown of Dharamshala, where he established a
government-in-exile, the spiritual leader has unified Tibetans at home
and in exile and elevated their plight onto the global stage.
That 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 “meaningful” autonomy that would
allow Tibetans to preserve their distinct culture, religion and
identity. His commitment to the nonviolent “middle way” approach
has earned him international support and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama has long been wary of Beijing’s attempt to meddle with
the reincarnation system of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhists believe in the circle of rebirth, and that when an
enlightened spiritual master like the Dalai Lama dies, he will be able
to choose the place and time of his rebirth through the force of
compassion and prayer.
But the religious tradition has increasingly become a battleground for
the control of Tibetan hearts and minds, especially since the contested
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in the
religion.
In 1995, years after the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, Beijing
installed its own panchen lama in defiance of the Dalai Lama, whose
pick for the role – a six-year-old boy – has since vanished from
public view.
Under Tibetan tradition, the dalai lamas and the panchen lamas have
long played key roles in recognizing each other’s reincarnations.
Experts believe Beijing will seek to interfere in the current Dalai
Lama’s succession in a similar way.
“There’s a whole series of high-level reincarnated lamas cultivated
by the Chinese government to work with it inside Tibet. (Beijing) will
call on all of those to help establish the Dalai Lama that they pick
inside Tibet,” Gamble said. “There’s been a long-term plan to
work toward this.”
A “resolution of gratitude” statement released by Tibetan Buddhist
religious leaders gathering in Dharamshala on Wednesday said they
“strongly condemn the People’s Republic of China’s usage of
reincarnation subject for their political gain” and “will never
accept it.”
For his part, the current Dalai Lama has made clear that any candidate
appointed by Beijing will hold no legitimacy in the eyes of Tibetans or
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.”
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