The successor to the Dalai Lama will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book that it raises the stakes of the conflict with Beijing over the control of the Himalayas, which it fled over 60 years ago.
Tibetans around the world hope that the Dalai Lama system will continue after the death of the age of 89. He writes voiced for a voiceless voice reviewed by Reuters and released Tuesday.
He previously said that the spiritual leadership line might end with him.
His book is marked only when the Dalai Lama designated his successor to be born in the “free world.” He previously said that in India, where he lives in exile, he can only be reborn outside of Tibet.
“The purpose of reincarnation is to continue the work of its predecessors, so the new Dalai Lama will be born in a free world, followed by the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama: the symbol of the Dalai Lat, a symbol of Tibetanism that embraces the aspirations of Tibetanism.
Tenzin Gyatoso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled to India at the age of 23 in 1959 with thousands of other Tibetans, after the failed uprising against Mao's communist rule in 1959. Although Beijing claims to choose his successor, the Dalai Lama said that China nominates will not be respected.
China brands the Dalai Lama, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for continuing to live out the “separatist” Tibetan cause.
When asked about the book at a press conference Monday, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said the Dalai Lama was “a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under a religious cloak.”
“China's position is consistently clear on the issue of Tibet. What the Dalai Lama is saying cannot change the objective facts of Tibet's prosperity and development.”
Beijing said in February that it was open to discussing his future if he met conditions such as the Dalai Lama wanted to “back on the right path” and that Tibet and Taiwan were aware that China's only legal government, China's only legal government. The proposal was rejected by India's Tibetan Parliament.
In his book, the Dalai Lama says that over a decade, the Dalai Lama has received many petitions from a wide range of Tibetans, including senior monks and Tibetans who live in Tibet and outside.
Tibetan tradition believes that the soul of the advanced Buddhist monk K is reborn into the body of his child's death. The current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two years old.
The book, which has been calling an account of the Dalai Lama's dealings with Chinese leaders for 70 years, was published in the US by William Moreau and Harper Non-Fiction on Tuesday, and Harper Collins has published in India and other countries.
The Dalai Lama said he would release details about his succession on his 90th birthday in July, but wrote that his hometown “remains in the grip of oppressive communist Chinese rule,” and that the campaign for freedom for the Tibetans will continue “what would it be” after his death.
