The Dalai Lama confirms that a successor will ensure the continuity of his role as spiritual leader of the Tibetan community

The Dalai Lama confirmed on Wednesday, July 2, that a successor would be appointed upon his death to ensure the continuity of his role as spiritual leader of the Tibetan community, a much-anticipated decision that sounds like a challenge to China. "I affirm that the institution of the Dalai Lama will be perpetuated," 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, for his civil status, became at the age of two the fourteenth spiritual and political leader of the Tibetans, duly identified by Buddhist tradition as the reincarnation of his predecessor.

He fled Tibet, which had been under Chinese control since 1950, and has since spent most of his time in a monastery in McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. Winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, he has since become a worldwide figure in the fight for the freedom of the Himalayan territory.

The question of his succession is crucial, as Tibetans suspect China of wanting to appoint a successor to him. "The responsibility [for appointing a successor] will rest exclusively with the members of the Ganden Phodrang Trust, the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama," it was stated. "They will conduct the procedures for searching and recognizing the successor in accordance with past tradition," he continued, "no one else has the authority to interfere in this matter."

The current Dalai Lama, considered a dangerous separatist by Beijing, has already publicly dismissed the idea that the fifteenth Dalai Lama could be appointed by the Chinese. He will necessarily be "born in the free world," he has publicly promised on numerous occasions.

In 1995, China abducted and detained a six-year-old boy whom the Dalai Lama had just designated as Panchen Lama, the other leading Tibetan religious figure. It then appointed its chosen candidate, who was immediately dismissed by Tibetans as the "false Panchen."

Although in recent years the Dalai Lama has suggested that he might be the last, a majority of Tibetans favored the continuation of the "cycle of reincarnation."

In his message on Wednesday, he noted the many requests from his community for the extension of his term. "I have received in particular, through various means, many messages from Tibetans in Tibet repeating this same call," he said.