Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China

The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.

Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless”, which was released on Tuesday.

He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him. His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world”, which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.

“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama —that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people — will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.

China brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a “separatist”.

The Dalai Lama is in a political exile who has “no right to represent the Tibetan people at all”, said a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry when asked about the book at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.

“The lineage of the Dalai Lama living Buddha was formed and developed in China’s Tibet, and his religious status and name were also determined by (China’s) central government,” said Mao Ning, the Chinese spokesperson.

“The 14th Dalai Lama himself was identified in accordance with religious rituals and historical conventions, and this was submitted to the then central government to approve the succession,” he added.