How will the Dalai Lama's successor be chosen?

Dharamshala, India - The choice of a successor to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists, is a matter of major interest not only for millions of followers of his religion, but also for China, India, and the United States, for strategic reasons.

The Nobel peace laureate, who turns 90 on Sunday, is regarded as one of the world's most influential figures, with a following extending well beyond Buddhism.

How was he chosen?

Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated after his death.

The 14th Dalai Lama was born as Lhamo Dhondup on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in what is now Qinghai province in the far northwest of China.

He was identified as thereincarnation when he was just two years old by a search party sent by the Tibetan government. They made their decision on the basis of several signs, such as a vision revealed to a senior monk, the Dalai Lama's website says. The searchers were convinced when the toddler identified belongings of the 13th Dalai Lama with the phrase, "It's mine, it's mine".

In February 1940, Lhamo Thondup was officially installed as the spiritual leader of Tibetans in a ceremony at the Potala Palace in Lhasa, now the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

How will his successors be chosen?

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in northern India since 1959, after fleeing a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong's Communists.

In his book "Voice for the Voiceless", released in March 2025, the Dalai Lama said his successor would be born outside China.

He wrote that he would release details about his succession around the time of his 90th birthday.

On Wednesday, he ended years of waiting on the issue saying the centuries-old institution of the Dalai Lama would continue and that the Gaden Phodrang Trust had sole authority to recognise his reincarnation.

The Gaden Phodrang Trust is a non-profit organisation set up by the Dalai Lama. It supports the Dalai Lama's spiritual and humanitarian work.

Earlier this week, while addressing a gathering in the northern India town of Dharamshala, he said: "There will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lamas".

In a speech in 2011, the Dalai Lama mentioned how highly enlightened Buddhists could "manifest an emanation before death". Some experts had speculated that he was raising the possibility of training a successor in his lifetime, but Tibetan officials have said that is unlikely.

"He has said this institution will carry on, which means his incarnation will be born," said Dolma Tsering Teykhang, the deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.

"Our Dalai Lama will be reborn, and the institution will carry on."

Tibet'sparliament-in-exile, based in Dharamshala, like the Dalai Lama, said a system had been established for the exiled government to continue its work while officers of the Gaden Phodrang Trust find and recognise the 14th Dalai Lama's successor.

The current Dalai Lama set up the trust in 2011. The non-profit was registered in Dharamshala, and its members include the Dalai Lama, senior monk Samdhong Rinpoche and close aides who work in the Dalai Lama's office.

What does China say?

China says its leaders have the right to approve the Dalai Lama's successor, and that a selection ritual, in which the names of possible reincarnations are drawn from a golden urn, took place as far back as 1793 during the Qing dynasty.

On Wednesday, hours after the Dalai Lama's announcement, the Chinese foreign ministry reiterated that China must approve the reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama's succession must comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as religious rituals and historical conventions, Mao Ning, a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a regular news conference.

China maintains that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should be decided by following national laws that decree the use of the golden urn and the birth of reincarnations within China's borders.

But many Tibetans are suspicious of any Chinese role in the selection.

It is inappropriate for Chinese Communists, who reject religion, "to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama," the Buddhist leader has said.

In his book, he asked Tibetans not to accept "a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People's Republic of China," referring to the country by its official name.

Beijing brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a "separatist" and prohibits displays of his picture or any public show of devotion towards him.

In March 2025, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the Dalai Lama was a political exile with "no right to represent the Tibetan people at all".

China denies suppressing the rights of the Tibetan people, and says its rule ended serfdom in, and brought prosperity to, a backward region.

In 1995, Beijing appointed Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama had earlier announced his own choice - a six-year old boy - but the child was taken away by authorities and disappeared from public view.

What role could India and the U.S. play?

Apart from the Dalai Lama, India is estimated to be home to more than 100,000 Tibetan Buddhists who are free to study and work there.

Many Indians revere him, and international relations experts say his presence in India gives New Delhi a measure of leverage with rival China.

The United States, which faces rising competition from China for global dominance, has repeatedly said it is committed to advancing the human rights of Tibetans.

U.S. lawmakers have previously said they would not allow China to influence the choice of the Dalai Lama's successor.

In 2024, then U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law that presses Beijing to resolve a dispute over Tibet's demands for greater autonomy.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Additional reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Kate Mayberry)