Dalai Lama

July 6 (UPI) — The 14th Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism, marked his 90th birthday Sunday with a celebration attended by thousands in the city of Dharamshala in India. The event included politically charged remarks subtly referencing China from U.S. and foreign officials.

The website for the Dalai Lama said in a statement that the celebration was organized by the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile, formed after the Dalai Lama fled the 1959 failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama did not lead the uprising, but rumors of Chinese plans to kidnap him fueled the resistance, and he was forced to flee to India for his safety — where he established the CTA. Tibet remains tightly controlled by Beijing despite its classification as an “autonomous region,” as does the majority of the population following Tibetan Buddhism.

Since his exile in 1959, the Dalai Lama’s relationship with China has been marked by decades of tension as Beijing condemned him as a separatist while he advocates for Tibetan autonomy through nonviolence and dialogue.

Last week, the aging Dalai Lama signaled that China should refrain from interfering in the process for his succession, while China has increasingly begun to warn off what it views as interference by India and reinforce its position that the succession of the spiritual leader should be held in accordance with Chinese law.

Bethany Nelson, Deputy Secretary of State for India and Bhutan, read a statement on behalf of Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the birthday festivities.

“The United States remains firmly committed to promoting respect for the human rights and the fundamental freedoms of the Tibetan people,” Nelson said. “We respect efforts to preserve their distinct linguistic, cultural and religious heritage, including their ability to freely choose and venerate their religious leaders without interference.”

Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama also delivered video messages that were shown during the celebrations, praising the Nobel Laureate as a voice for peace. The CTA particularly noted that Lai Ching-te, the president of Taiwan, which China views as a wayward province, had extended birthday wishes to the Dalai Lama.

The birthday celebration also comes days after the administration of President Donald Trump decided to walk back cuts to aid for Tibetans in exile. Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong or, political leader, of the CTA, addressed the cancellation of those cuts in a statement from the celebrations.

He mentioned that a “substantial delegation” from the U.S. State Department and staff from the U.S. Embassy in Delhi worked diligently with the CTA to restore some of the funds.

The Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday has been celebrated with cake and cultural performances by devotees around the world, including actor Richard Gere. The Nobel Prize-winning Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader says he will reincarnate after his death, but hopes that isn’t any time soon.

There has been speculation over the succession plan for the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.

The Dalai Lama has said that he hopes to live for another 40 years until he is 130 years old, on the eve of his 90th birthday, days after he sought to assuage rife speculation over his succession by saying he would reincarnate upon his death.

The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader was speaking on Saturday during a ceremony organised by his followers to offer prayers for his long life, ahead of his 90th birthday on Sunday.

Leading thousands in the prayers as the sound of chanting, drums, horns rang out, he said: “So far, I have done my best and with the continued blessings of Avalokiteshvara (a Buddhist spiritual protector), I hope to live another 30 or 40 years, continuing to serve sentient beings and the Buddha Dharma”, he said, referring to the teachings of the Buddha.

The Dalai Lama previously told the Reuters news agency in December he might live to 110.

The Dalai Lama has confirmed that he will have a successor chosen in accordance with “past tradition”, ending years of speculation about the centuries-old office.

In a video message on Wednesday, he said the Gaden Phodrang Foundation, which he established to preserve the institution, will have the power to recognise his future reincarnation.

Tibetan Buddhist leaders will search for his successor, he added, stressing that “no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter”.

The 14th Dalai Lama said he had received many messages in recent years from Buddhists calling for the office’s continuation.

“In accordance with all these requests, I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” he added.

He made the comments on Wednesday during a three-day religious conference in Dharamshala, the northern Indian town where he has been based since 1959, when he fled Tibet for India after a failed uprising against China.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, the Tibetan writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue described the Dalai Lama’s announcement on Wednesday as a “punch in the face” for China, which governs the Tibet Autonomous Region and which has claimed that it has the power to appoint his successor.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, whom China brands a “separatist”, has previously warned Beijing not “to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama”.

In response to his comments on Wednesday, China said the Dalai Lama’s succession must be approved by the central government in Beijing and that it would be carried out “by drawing lots from a golden urn”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.

That urn is held by China, and the Dalai Lama has already warned that, when used dishonestly, it lacks “any spiritual quality”.

The Dalai Lama has announced that there will be another spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhists.

As the Nobel Peace Prize laureate approaches the age of 90, attention has turned to the sensitive issue of his successor.

Each Dalai Lama is considered a “Living Buddha”. The current one fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese communists in Tibet and says his next reincarnation could be born among his followers there.

But Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and insists it has a veto over the choice, while the United States supports the Dalai Lama’s right to determine his own reincarnation.

So how will the selection process balance religion and regional politics?

And if it fails, what is the likelihood of having two Dalai Lamas?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Robbie Barnett – Writer and researcher on modern Tibetan-Chinese history and politics, and a professor at SOAS University of London

Andy Mok – Geopolitical analyst and senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization

Dibyesh Anand – Political analyst and professor of international relations at the University of Westminster

The Dalai Lama confirmed on Wednesday that he will have a successor to carry on the role of spiritual leadership to Tibetan Buddhists, in a statement issued during continuing celebrations to mark his 90th birthday.

He said that leaders of Tibet’s spiritual traditions, members of the Tibetan parliament and government in exile, both of which are in the Indian district of Dharamshala, and Buddhists from around the world, including mainland China and Tibet, had written to him, requesting that the institution continue.

“In accordance with all these requests, I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” he said.

His statement, issued at a time when Buddhist scholars and revered monks from around the world have converged on McLeodganj town in Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama lives, to participate in the 90th birthday celebrations. The town, also known as “Little Lhasa” because it is in effect the capital of Tibetan Buddhists in exile, will also host an intense three-day religious conference that the Dalai Lama will preside over.

But the occasion isn’t only religious. How the next Dalai is chosen, and by whom, carries deep geopolitical significance.

For centuries, Tibetan Buddhist leaders have chosen and enthroned a new Dalai Lama only after an intense quest and subsequent schooling after the incumbent passes away. If the current Dalai Lama, the 14th, offers any more details in the coming days about how his successor might be chosen, or whom it might be, that would represent a dramatic break with tradition.

What he says, and doesn’t say, will be closely watched in Washington, New Delhi and Beijing.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who fled Tibet for India in 1959, is seen as a separatist by Beijing. India, as his host for 66 years, has deep stakes in the future of the institution of the Dalai Lama, who has known every Indian prime minister since the country gained independence. And the United States, which has long cited the Tibetan movement in exile as evidence of China’s human rights excesses, will want to make sure that the glue that binds it all – the institution of the Dalai Lama – continues.

So, who will choose the next Dalai Lama? Can the incumbent Dalai Lama stump the Chinese government? And could there be two Dalai Lamas?

How is a Dalai Lama chosen?

Choosing the next Dalai Lama, who will be enthroned as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is a process rooted in centuries-old traditions, spiritual beliefs, and rituals.

Traditions consider the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and each Dalai Lama is believed to be the successor in a line of reincarnations.

Traditionally, the search for the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation typically begins after a period of mourning. High-ranking lamas (spiritual leaders) form a search committee to identify the next Dalai Lama, based on signs such as the direction of the smoke blowing from his cremation, the direction where he was looking when he died, and oracles’ visions, including at Lhamo Latso, a lake considered holy in Tibet.

Once potential candidates are identified, they undergo a series of tests to confirm their identity as the reincarnation. Candidates are usually young boys born at about the time of the previous Dalai Lama’s death. But the current Dalai Lama has said that there is no reason why a woman cannot be the next reincarnation.

After a candidate is chosen, the child begins a rigorous education in Buddhist philosophy, scriptures and leadership responsibilities, preparing them to assume the role of both a spiritual and, historically, political leader of the Tibetan people.

Who is the current Dalai Lama and how was he chosen?

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th and current Dalai Lama, was born as Lhamo Dhondup on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in a region now in Qinghai province. He was identified as a reincarnation when he was barely two years old.

After the death of the 13th Dalai Lama, the search party concluded a four-year-long quest after the toddler identified belongings of his predecessor with the phrase, “It’s mine, it’s mine.” While the majority of Dalai Lamas have been born in Tibet, one was discovered in Mongolia, and another in a region that today lies in northeastern India.

In March 1959, after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese control, the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa in disguise, crossing the Himalayas on horseback and foot, eventually reaching India on March 31 that year. Nearly 100,000 Tibetan refugees live in different parts of India today, the community’s largest exile population.

His escape marked the end of traditional Tibetan governance and the beginning of a life in exile, from where he led the Tibetan struggle for autonomy.

What has the 14th Dalai Lama said about his successor?

Addressing a beaming crowd of followers and monks in McLeodganj on Monday, June 30, the Dalai Lama, clad in his traditional red robes and yellow scarf, said: “As far as the institution of the Dalai Lama is concerned, there will be a framework for it to continue.

“I think I have been able to serve the Dharma and sentient beings and I am determined to continue to do so,” he added, noting that at 90 years old, he feels “physically healthy and well”.

He has also hinted about where to look for the next Dalai Lama. Noting that the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the 14th Dalai Lama wrote in his book, Voice for the Voiceless, published in March 2025, that “the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world”.

In effect, that has meant that the Dalai Lama has decreed that the reincarnation would not be in China or China-controlled Tibet. He had earlier said that his incarnation could be found in India.

For Tenzin Jigme, a 39-year-old who lives in McLeodganj and works with the Tibetan government-in-exile, the mere thought of the Dalai Lama passing away is heavy. His voice broke as he said, “We live in a free world because he led us here.”

“For all of us, living as refugees, His Holiness Dalai Lama is a fatherly figure,” Jigme told Al Jazeera. “We need his reincarnation; look at the world, we need someone to teach us compassion.”

Was there a risk that there wouldn’t be a successor?

The 14th Dalai Lama has suggested in the past that there may not be a successor at all.

In 2011, he said that when he turned 90, he would consult his fellow lamas and the Tibetan public and “re‑evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not”.

In 2014, during a visit to the 14th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome, the then-79-year-old spiritual leader said that whether another Dalai Lama would be enthroned after him would depend on the circumstances after his death and was “up to the Tibetan people”.

“The Dalai Lama institution will cease one day. These man-made institutions will cease,” the Dalai Lama said in an interview with the BBC. “There is no guarantee that some stupid Dalai Lama won’t come next, who will disgrace himself or herself. That would be very sad. So, much better that a centuries-old tradition should cease at the time of a quite popular Dalai Lama.”

Dibyesh Anand, a professor of international relations at the University of Westminster and the author of Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination, said the institution of the Dalai Lama will face immense uncertainty in the coming decades.

But, he said, “the history shows that this institution has been more protean and resilient than politically power-based states.”

Subsequent exiled Dalai Lamas “will not have political power in conventional sense”; however, the institution will remain “symbolically the heart of the Tibetan nation and the most respected authority in Tibetan Buddhism,” he said.

What is China’s position on this?

China insists that only its government has the authority to approve the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, treating it as a matter of national sovereignty and religious regulation. This position was cemented in a 2007 law, which mandates that all reincarnations of Tibetan “living Buddhas” must be approved by the state and must follow Chinese laws, religious rituals and historical precedent.

Chinese officials have repeatedly stated that the next Dalai Lama must be born inside China, and any foreign-born or exile-appointed successor would be considered “illegitimate”.

A key element of China’s proposed process is the Golden Urn system, an 18th-century Qing Dynasty method in which the names of candidates are placed in a golden vessel and one is selected by lot.

The current Dalai Lama doesn’t favour this method, arguing that it lacks “spiritual quality”.

In March 2015, then Tibet Governor Padma Choling accused the Dalai Lama of “profaning religion and Tibetan Buddhism,” adding that the Dalai Lama was trying to usurp Beijing’s right to decide.

“If he says no reincarnation, then no reincarnation? Impossible. Nobody in Tibetan Buddhism would agree to that,” said Choling.

While talks over finding the next Dalai Lama traditionally occur after the death of the incumbent one, the Chinese position has left monks and Tibetans in exile worried that Beijing might try to hijack the institution.

The centrality of the Dalai Lama to the Tibetan national movement and his stature as a global icon is an irritant for Beijing, said Anand, the professor.

“This is a battle over legitimacy and not actual rule over territorial Tibet. Beijing seeks to win that battle of legitimacy but faces an institution and person in the 14th Dalai Lama that is beyond its control,” he told Al Jazeera.

Robert Barnett, a scholar of modern Tibetan history and politics and founder of Columbia University’s Modern Tibetan Studies Program, said that some “Chinese strategists see the succession issue purely as an opportunity to frustrate the exile project”.

Another reason could be the Chinese leaders’ anticipation of another plausible Tibetan uprising. It helps Beijing to “have a ‘tame’ Dalai Lama to dissuade Tibetans from protest,” Barnett told Al Jazeera.

Has China hijacked a selection before?

Yes. In 1995, the Dalai Lama recognised a young boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama – the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism. He was a six-year-old, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the son of a doctor and a nurse from the Tibetan town of Naqchu.

Soon after, Chinese authorities took the boy into custody and relocated the family. Their whereabouts are not known since.

In his place, Beijing appointed its own candidate, a move widely rejected by Tibetan Buddhists in exile and many inside Tibet, who view the Chinese-selected Panchen Lama as illegitimate.

The disappearance of the Panchen Lama in 1995 was a turning point in Chinese-Tibetan political history, said Barnett.

“The Chinese side decided that it has to control not just which child should be chosen, but whether a lama can reincarnate, where he or she can reincarnate, who should search for them,” he said. The Chinese were clear that the Dalai Lama needed to be excluded from the process.

That episode is a key reason why the current Dalai Lama and Tibetans in exile are opposed to the selection of any future reincarnation inside China, including Tibet. The chosen child might simply be abducted, as happened 30 years ago.

Anand said that China’s goal is to dishearten and divide Tibetans. “If [China] cannot achieve it through winning hearts and minds, they’d do it through divide and rule, and this is how we should see the battle over reincarnation,” he told Al Jazeera.

A case of two rival Dalai Lamas

Tibet observers and scholars believe that after the 14th Dalai Lama’s death, Tibetan Buddhists might well find a scenario where two rival successors jostle for legitimacy – an exiled leader, appointed by the lamas faithful to the incumbent Dalai Lama, and one appointed by the Chinese government.

It would be unprecedented in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, but “is highly likely to occur,” said Barnett.

While the reality of two Dalai Lamas may not matter to exiled Tibetans from a religious perspective, it “makes life very difficult for Tibetans inside Tibet who will be forced in huge numbers to publicly declare their loyalty to China over and over again”.

Barnett noted that Beijing could also use the succession issue as leverage to get foreign governments to marginalise organisations of Tibetans in exile in those countries.

Anand said that Beijing’s insistence on its candidate “will be a source of instability in China-Tibetan relations” and “may come back to haunt the Chinese Communist Party”.

In an interview in March 2019, the Dalai Lama acknowledged that following his death, there could be two rival Dalai Lamas. “In future, in case you see two Dalai Lamas come, one from here, in free country, one chosen by Chinese, then nobody will trust, nobody will respect [the one chosen by China],” he said.

“So that’s an additional problem for the Chinese! It’s possible, it can happen,” the Dalai Lama added, laughing.

Is the selection also a geostrategic issue?

It is, mainly for India and the United States.

For India, which hosts the Tibetan government-in-exile, the succession of the Dalai Lama intersects with national security and its fraught border relationship with China.

New Delhi will want to carry on giving hospitality and refuge to the Dalai Lama and his followers, said Anand. He added that the “Tibetan exiles in India offer a leverage and buffer to India vis-a-vis China’s influence in the Himalayan region”.

The US’s interest in Tibet dates back to the Cold War era, when the CIA backed Tibetan resistance against Chinese occupation, in the 1950s, including after the Dalai Lama’s exile.

Washington has long shown bipartisan support for the religious autonomy of Tibetan Buddhists, including in choosing the next Dalai Lama.

In 2015, when China claimed authority to select the next Dalai Lama, US officials publicly rejected this, asserting that Tibetan Buddhists alone should decide. The most forceful position came in 2020 with the passage of the Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA) under President Donald Trump.

The new US position explicitly supported the Dalai Lama’s right to determine his own reincarnation and authorised sanctions on Chinese officials who interfered in the process.

The international support for the Tibetan right to decide on the institution of the Dalai Lama, Anand said, “is going to play out in geopolitical rivalry between the US and China as well as China and India in the future”.

American universities have long feared that the Chinese government will restrict its country’s students from attending institutions that cross Beijing’s sensitive political lines.

Universities still fear that consequence today, but the most immediate threat is no longer posed by the Chinese government. Now, as the latest punishment meted out to the Trump administration’s preeminent academic scapegoat shows, it’s our own government posing the threat.

In a May 22 letter, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced she revoked Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, meaning the university’s thousands of international students must transfer immediately or lose their legal status. Harvard can no longer enroll future international students either.

Noem cited Harvard’s failure to hand over international student disciplinary records in response to a prior letter and, disturbingly, the Trump administration’s desire to “root out the evils of anti-Americanism” on campus. Among the most alarming demands in this latest missive was that Harvard supply all video of “any protest activity” by any international student within the last five years.

Harvard immediately sued Noem and her department and other agencies, rightfully calling the revocation “a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” and within hours a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the revocation.

“Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” Noem wrote on X about the punishment. And on Tuesday, the administration halted interviews for all new student visas.

This is not how a free country treats its schools — or the international visitors who attend them.

Noem’s warning will, no doubt, be heard loud and clear. That’s because universities — which depend on international students’ tuition dollars — have already had reason to worry that they will lose access to international students for displeasing censorial government officials.

In 2010, Beijing revoked recognition of the University of Calgary’s accreditation in China, meaning Chinese students at the Canadian school suddenly risked paying for a degree worth little at home. The reason? The university’s granting of an honorary degree to the Dalai Lama the year before. “We have offended our Chinese partners by the very fact of bringing in the Dalai Lama, and we have work to resolve that issue,” a spokesperson said.

Beijing restored recognition over a year later, but many Chinese students had already left. Damage done.

Similarly, when UC San Diego hosted the Dalai Lama as commencement speaker in 2017, punishment followed. The China Scholarship Council suspended funding for academics intending to study at UCSD, and an article in the state media outlet Global Times recommended that Chinese authorities “not recognize diplomas or degree certificates issued by the university.”

This kind of direct punishment doesn’t happen very frequently. But the threat always exists, and it creates fear that administrators take into account when deciding how their universities operate.

American universities now must fear that they will suffer this penalty too, but at an even greater scale: revocation of access not just to students from China, but all international students. That’s a huge potential loss. At Harvard, for example, international students make up a whopping 27% of total enrollment.

Whether they publicly acknowledge it or not, university leaders probably are considering whether they need to adjust their behavior to avoid seeing international student tuition funds dry up.

Will our colleges and universities increase censorship and surveillance of international students? Avoid inviting commencement speakers disfavored by the Trump administration? Pressure academic departments against hiring any professors whose social media comments or areas of research will catch the eye of mercurial government officials?

And, equally disturbing, will they be willing to admit that they are now making these calculations at all? Unlike direct punishments by the Trump administration or Beijing, this chilling effect is likely to be largely invisible.

Harvard might be able to survive without international students’ tuition. But a vast number of other universities could not. The nation as a whole would feel their loss too: In the 2023-24 academic year, international students contributed a record-breaking $43.8 billion to the American economy.

And these students — who have uprooted their lives for the promise of what American education offers — are the ones who will suffer the most, as they experience weeks or months of panic and upheaval while being used as pawns in this campaign to punish higher ed.

If the Trump administration is seeking to root out “anti-Americanism,” it can begin by surveying its own behavior in recent months. Freedom of expression is one of our country’s most cherished values. Censorship, surveillance and punishment of government critics do not belong here.

Sarah McLaughlin is senior scholar on global expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and author of the forthcoming book “Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech.”