Dalai Lama’s expected announcement might impede Chinese control of his succession

[ad_1] Because the Dalai Lama approaches his ninetieth birthday on July 6, the world awaits the Tibetan non secular chief’s choice on whether or not there shall be a subsequent Dalai Lama – an announcement the top of Tibetan Buddhism promised to unveil when he's 90 in what could function a definitive transfer to thwart the Chinese language authorities’s efforts to exert management over his succession.

The announcement is about to be probably the most consequential in fashionable Tibetan historical past, one that can form the way forward for Tibetans’ seven-decade-long battle to protect their spiritual and cultural freedoms within the face of Chinese language oppression and the continuation of the 14th Dalai Lama’s legacy as a worldwide icon of compassion, peace, democracy and human dignity.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="Tibetan nuns and monks walk in Dharamsala July 1, 2025." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/EAVG7GZVI5EVHCLPVM5SGDWFNM.jpg?auth=413f91c18beff30cbcc4c4e63b0391611d69060afc49c3658db8810ec702c5dc&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/EAVG7GZVI5EVHCLPVM5SGDWFNM.jpg?auth=413f91c18beff30cbcc4c4e63b0391611d69060afc49c3658db8810ec702c5dc&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/EAVG7GZVI5EVHCLPVM5SGDWFNM.jpg?auth=413f91c18beff30cbcc4c4e63b0391611d69060afc49c3658db8810ec702c5dc&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/EAVG7GZVI5EVHCLPVM5SGDWFNM.jpg?auth=413f91c18beff30cbcc4c4e63b0391611d69060afc49c3658db8810ec702c5dc&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/EAVG7GZVI5EVHCLPVM5SGDWFNM.jpg?auth=413f91c18beff30cbcc4c4e63b0391611d69060afc49c3658db8810ec702c5dc&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/EAVG7GZVI5EVHCLPVM5SGDWFNM.jpg?auth=413f91c18beff30cbcc4c4e63b0391611d69060afc49c3658db8810ec702c5dc&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> tibet-dalai-lama-china-successor Tibetan nuns and monks stroll in Dharamsala July 1, 2025. (Sanjay Baid/AFP) At a convention of Tibetan spiritual leaders scheduled for July 2-4 in Dharamsala, simply days earlier than his ninetieth birthday, the worldwide Buddhist chief is predicted to announce if the establishment of the Dalai Lama will proceed and ensure whether or not formal accountability for the popularity of the fifteenth Dalai Lama ought to relaxation with the Gaden Phodrang Belief, his non-public workplace.

In 2011, on the conclusion of the same conference of the heads of all Tibetan spiritual traditions, the Dalai Lama issued a proper assertion saying that when he turns 90, he would seek the advice of with Tibetan spiritual leaders and the general public on whether or not there ought to be a subsequent Dalai Lama.

“Whether it is determined that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama ought to proceed and there's a want for the Fifteenth Dalai Lama to be acknowledged, accountability for doing so will primarily relaxation on the involved officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Belief (the Workplace of the Dalai Lama),” the Buddhist chief mentioned in his Sep. 24, 2011, assertion.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="The Dalai Lama speaks during a Tibetan religious conference in Dharamsala on September 23, 2011." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/MB4W3EJXDFF2PLAK4LDYAHPTGQ.jpg?auth=fc63d6272546bba286f89511c4f9262e197153b66a6c219665be14a1dda71553&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/MB4W3EJXDFF2PLAK4LDYAHPTGQ.jpg?auth=fc63d6272546bba286f89511c4f9262e197153b66a6c219665be14a1dda71553&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/MB4W3EJXDFF2PLAK4LDYAHPTGQ.jpg?auth=fc63d6272546bba286f89511c4f9262e197153b66a6c219665be14a1dda71553&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/MB4W3EJXDFF2PLAK4LDYAHPTGQ.jpg?auth=fc63d6272546bba286f89511c4f9262e197153b66a6c219665be14a1dda71553&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/MB4W3EJXDFF2PLAK4LDYAHPTGQ.jpg?auth=fc63d6272546bba286f89511c4f9262e197153b66a6c219665be14a1dda71553&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/MB4W3EJXDFF2PLAK4LDYAHPTGQ.jpg?auth=fc63d6272546bba286f89511c4f9262e197153b66a6c219665be14a1dda71553&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> tibet-dalai-lama-china-successor The Dalai Lama speaks throughout a Tibetan spiritual convention in Dharamsala on Sept. 23, 2011. (AFP) “They need to seek the advice of the assorted heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the dependable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who're linked inseparably to the lineage of the Dalai Lamas… and perform the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with previous custom. I shall depart clear written directions about this,” he added.

On the time, the Dalai Lama additionally made clear that “...aside from a reincarnation acknowledged by way of such professional strategies, no recognition or acceptance ought to be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anybody, together with these within the Folks’s Republic of China.”

If China does intervene, it wouldn’t be the primary time. On Could 17, 1995, the Chinese language authorities kidnapped a then-6-year-old boy named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, simply days after he was formally acknowledged by the Dalai Lama because the eleventh Panchen Lama, the second-highest non secular chief within the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

Rights teams say his continued disappearance and China’s set up of one other boy, Gyaltsen (in Chinese language, Gyaincain) Norbu, in his place, highlights the Chinese language authorities’s long-held plan to regulate the popularity of the following Dalai Lama, given the 2 lamas have traditionally acknowledged the opposite’s successive reincarnations and served as the opposite’s trainer.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="panchen-lama-tibet-disappearance-anniversary" class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3OOOUVAW5NE4VJQJ24WCYDUZ2I.jpg?auth=3ddc48132dba75f5e0c1ad7a32c136c5c4a5330809ac7c2c171c9e327348cdf7&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3OOOUVAW5NE4VJQJ24WCYDUZ2I.jpg?auth=3ddc48132dba75f5e0c1ad7a32c136c5c4a5330809ac7c2c171c9e327348cdf7&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3OOOUVAW5NE4VJQJ24WCYDUZ2I.jpg?auth=3ddc48132dba75f5e0c1ad7a32c136c5c4a5330809ac7c2c171c9e327348cdf7&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3OOOUVAW5NE4VJQJ24WCYDUZ2I.jpg?auth=3ddc48132dba75f5e0c1ad7a32c136c5c4a5330809ac7c2c171c9e327348cdf7&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3OOOUVAW5NE4VJQJ24WCYDUZ2I.jpg?auth=3ddc48132dba75f5e0c1ad7a32c136c5c4a5330809ac7c2c171c9e327348cdf7&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3OOOUVAW5NE4VJQJ24WCYDUZ2I.jpg?auth=3ddc48132dba75f5e0c1ad7a32c136c5c4a5330809ac7c2c171c9e327348cdf7&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> panchen-lama-tibet-disappearance-anniversary A Tibetan man carries a portrait of the eleventh Panchen Lama, the second-highest Tibetan spiritual chief, as a portrait of the Dalai Lama, left, stands within the background, in Katmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, April 25, 2012. (Niranjan Shrestha/AP) The Chinese language authorities, for its half, believes it could appoint the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama beneath Chinese language regulation.

“The reincarnation of Dwelling Buddhas is exclusive to Tibetan Buddhism. It should adjust to Chinese language legal guidelines and rules in addition to spiritual rituals and historic conventions, and observe the method that consists of search and identification in China, lot-drawing from a golden urn, and central authorities approval,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese language embassy in Washington D.C., informed RFA final month.

In 2007, Beijing decreed that the Chinese language authorities would start overseeing the popularity of all reincarnate Tibetan lamas, or “dwelling Buddhas,” together with the following incarnation of the Dalai Lama. China plans to make use of its personal Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama to endorse their selection – a transfer the Dalai Lama has mentioned contradicts the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s political ideology.

“It's notably inappropriate for Chinese language communists, who explicitly reject even the concept of previous and future lives, not to mention the idea of reincarnate Tulkus (or Buddhist incarnated beings), to meddle within the system of reincarnation and particularly the reincarnations of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas,” the Dalai Lama mentioned in 2011.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama atthe U.S. Capitol after receving the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, October 17, 2007." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/KAJVTNOV7BFBFH2WCMMYYIH624.JPG?auth=d4e105e2870f7703d79b37ba342583220ef664199c30d0bfefaf20c177c4482c&width=800&height=588" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/KAJVTNOV7BFBFH2WCMMYYIH624.JPG?auth=d4e105e2870f7703d79b37ba342583220ef664199c30d0bfefaf20c177c4482c&width=274&height=201 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/KAJVTNOV7BFBFH2WCMMYYIH624.JPG?auth=d4e105e2870f7703d79b37ba342583220ef664199c30d0bfefaf20c177c4482c&width=400&height=294 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/KAJVTNOV7BFBFH2WCMMYYIH624.JPG?auth=d4e105e2870f7703d79b37ba342583220ef664199c30d0bfefaf20c177c4482c&width=768&height=564 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/KAJVTNOV7BFBFH2WCMMYYIH624.JPG?auth=d4e105e2870f7703d79b37ba342583220ef664199c30d0bfefaf20c177c4482c&width=1024&height=752 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/KAJVTNOV7BFBFH2WCMMYYIH624.JPG?auth=d4e105e2870f7703d79b37ba342583220ef664199c30d0bfefaf20c177c4482c&width=1440&height=1058 1440w" width="800" height="588"/> tibet-dalai-lama-china-successor The Dalai Lama on the U.S. Capitol after receiving the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, Oct. 17, 2007. (Jim Younger/Reuters) “Such brazen meddling contradicts their very own political ideology and divulges their double requirements. Ought to this case proceed sooner or later, it is going to be inconceivable for Tibetans and those that observe the Tibetan Buddhist custom to acknowledge or settle for it,” he added.

The Dalai Lama’s assertion on his reincarnation could, subsequently, serve to preempt Beijing’s efforts to intrude within the recognition of the fifteenth Dalai Lama.

It's anticipated to come back simply days earlier than the U.S. Congress is more likely to formally designate July 6 as “A Day of Compassion” by way of a bipartisan decision launched by U.S. lawmakers within the U.S. Home of Representatives and the Senate in recognition of the Dalai Lama’s “excellent contributions to peace, nonviolence, human rights, and spiritual understanding.”