The Dalai Lama confirmed on Wednesday that a successor will be appointed upon his death to ensure the continuity of the role of spiritual leader of the Tibetan community, a long-awaited decision that sounds like a challenge to China.
„I affirm that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” he said in a message read at a religious gathering in McLeod Ganj, in northern India, where he lives in exile.
Born on July 6, 1935, Tenzin Gyatso became the 14th spiritual and political leader of the Tibetans at the age of two, identified by the Buddhist tradition as the reincarnation of his predecessor.
He fled Tibet, which has been under Chinese control since 1950, and has since spent most of his time in a monastery in McLeod Ganj, at the foot of the Indian Himalayas.
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, he has since embodied the worldwide struggle for the freedom of the Himalayan territory.
China wants to appoint its own successor
The issue of his succession is crucial as Tibetans suspect that the Beijing government wants to appoint its own successor.
The current Tibetan spiritual leader stated that the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the non-profit organization he established to maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama, has the exclusive authority to recognize his future reincarnation, consulting with leaders of Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
"The responsibility (for appointing a successor, ed.) will belong exclusively to the members of the Ganden Phodrang Foundation, the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They will carry out the search and recognition procedures (of the successor), in accordance with past tradition," he continued.
"No one else has the authority to intervene in this matter," the current Dalai Lama emphasized in his message.
China has made no immediate comment, according to Reuters.
Considered a dangerous separatist by Beijing, the current Tibetan spiritual leader had already publicly rejected the idea that the 15th Dalai Lama could be appointed by the Chinese.
He has promised publicly that he will "be born, inevitably, in the free world" on numerous occasions.
Although in recent years the Dalai Lama has suggested that he might be the last, the majority of Tibetans have expressed support for the continuation of the "reincarnation cycle."