Dalai Lama says his trust has sole authority to decide his successor

The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday that a trust he founded had the sole prerogative to decide on his successor, and that no one else had the authority to interfere in the matter.

The Tibetan spiritual leader’s statement came in the context of Beijing’s stand that the succession of the 14th Dalai Lama needed the Chinese government’s approval.

“I hereby reiterate that the Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognise the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” the Dalai Lama said. The Gaden Phodrang Trust is a non-profit organisation that the 14th Dalai Lama set up in 2015 to support the institution of the Dalai Lama.

The statement came ahead of a three-day Tibetan Buddhist Conference which will begin on Wednesday at Himachal Pradesh’s McLeodganj, just days before the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday on July 6.

In a statement released by his office on social media, the leader said that as far back as 1969, he had made it clear that the people concerned should decide whether the Dalai Lama’s reincarnations should continue in the future.

“I also said: When I am about 90, I will consult the high Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public and other concerned people who follow Tibetan...

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