The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's top spiritual leader, said the "institution" of the Dalai Lama, which involves reincarnation, will continue.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, posted on the institution's website Wednesday that he had received communications from Buddhist and Tibetan leaders "earnestly requesting that the institution of the Dalai Lama continue."
He verified in his prepared message that the tradition will go on. He also said Chinese government leaders will not have a say in the matter.
The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in India. He fled when the Chinese Army invaded Tibet in 1959 to impose Communist Party control over the region. His travels abroad have been aimed at preserving cultural and religious freedoms for the people of Tibet.
His biography indicates that he was born into a farm family in 1935. At the age of 2, he was identified by a Tibetan government search team as the reincarnated personification of the 13th Dalai Lama after he selected some items that were owned by the previous religious leader.
In his message about the future of the religion, he said that Tibetan religious leaders have the control "to recognize the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter."
The New York Times reported that the Chinese government has claimed to have at least some control over identifying the next reincarnated Dalai Lama, and there's no way of knowing how the selection process will play out after his death. He will turn 90 on Sunday.
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