(TibetanReview.net, Jun20’25) – Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is expected to issue a message on Jul 2, few days before his 90th birthday, which will possibly address the issue of his succession, reported the AFP Jun 19, citing the Sikyong (executive head) Mr Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) at Dharamshala, India, speaking the day before.
The CTA is launching a “Year of Compassion” series of events across much of the free world on the Dalai Lama 90thbirthday on Jul 6. This will be preceded by a meeting of the top religious leaders of Tibet at Dharamshala, during which the Dalai Lama is expected to issue a video message.
The report cited the Tibetan Sikyong as saying the landmark birthday will also be a time to encourage people to plan for an eventual future without him and to address whether the Tibetan people want, in time, another Dalai Lama.
“There will be a brief meeting of all the head lamas, which is about nine of them, meeting with His Holiness [the Dalai Lama]”, the report quoted the Tibetan Sikyong as telling reporters, adding that after that, they would open a religious meeting.
“At the opening of the religious conference there will be a video message from His Holiness”, he has added.
No details were given as to what the message will be, but there is widespread support among Tibetans in exile for the post of the Dalai Lama to continue, the report said.
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The Dalai Lama has been the temporal head and spiritual leader of Tibet since 1642 through successive reincarnations of what Tibetans believe is the Chenrezig, the human manifestation of their Snowland’s patron deity, the bodhisattva of compassion.
The Dalai Lama relinquished his political authority in favour of elected leaders in 2011, Deciding to devote himself to spiritual and peace works while agreeing to speak up for the Tibetan people as their spokesperson.
China has continued to condemn him as a separatist, even though he has only been seeking meaningful autonomy for his Tibetan homeland for the past several decades.
The Communist Party of China-state, which does not believe in reincarnation, says the Dalai Lama cannot refuse to reincarnate, and that neither will he have any say in his own reincarnation, which turns the very system of this unique Tibetan Buddhist tradition on its head. It has announced a set of regulations to make it clear that his reincarnation will be chosen with its approval and that too only from within the People’s Republic of China.
The Dalai Lama’s position is that his reincarnation cannot happen within a territory under the control of the Communist Party of China-state so long as the issue of Tibet remains unresolved. The very purpose of his reincarnation would be to continue his unfinished work of this life, he has emphasized.
He has also said that if there “is a consensus that the Dalai Lama institution should continue”, then the Office of the Dalai Lama – the Gaden Phodrang Trust in McLeod Ganj (Dharamshala) – would hold the responsibility for the recognition of the next leader.