Dalai Lama announces clear succession plan

BBC:

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says he will have a successor after his death, putting to rest all speculation over whether the 600-year-old institution will end with him.

“I am affirming that the institution will continue,” he said in a video message at the start of a meeting of religious leaders in the Himalayan town of Dharamshala.

He added that members of the Dalai Lama’s office would consult heads of Tibetan Buddhist traditions and other religious leaders to search and recognise a successor in accordance with past tradition.

In a message that is being seen as directed at China, he reiterated that “no-one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter”.

The Dalai Lama fled across the border to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. He set up a government-in-exile in Dharamshala and has been seen as an alternative source of power for those who resent Beijing’s tight control of Tibet.

The announcement comes at a time when the Dalai Lama is celebrating a milestone 90th birthday on Sunday. Celebrations began on Monday – the Dalai Lama’s birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar.

Celebrations will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower, is also in attendance.

In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism has been torn between whether to continue with the 600-year-old institution or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all.

But in recent years, he has also said that if there is widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post – which there is – then it would continue and his office would choose a successor.

He has always insisted that his successor would be born outside China, something that has angered Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule within China – Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule.