{"id":28118,"date":"2025-07-02T14:46:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28118"},"modified":"2025-07-02T14:46:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:46:26","slug":"dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on","title":{"rendered":"Dalai Lama: ‘The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Left: Christopher Michel \/ commons.wikimedia.org | Right: Hinduism Times \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amid skepticism among Tibetan Buddhist adherents concerned about the Dalai Lama approaching his 90th birthday, the 14th Dalai Lama has affirmed: \u201cThe institution of the Dalai Lama will continue.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Tibetan Buddhists’ beliefs, the \u201cspirit of the Dalai Lama\u201d reincarnates into the body of a child who is chosen at an early age. The 14th Dalai Lama, born <\/span>Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, was discovered in a farming village in 1937 when he was only two years old. By the age of six, he was declared the next Dalai Lama.<\/span><\/p>\n

Somehow, monks were led to the child\u2019s location in the village of Amdo (a Chinese frontier district), spoke to Gyatso\u2019s parents and began instructions to secure the Dalai Lama. As the Dalai Lama becomes a nonagenarian on July 6, many devoted followers are concerned that a \u201csuccession plan\u201d hasn\u2019t been announced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much to his reputation, the Dalai Lama has shared few words but spoke volumes when <\/span>he addressed the world recently<\/span><\/a>. From closed-circuit television in Dharamsala, the Himalayan town where he has lived in exile, fulfilling his spiritual office, he laid down the law regarding who will be the 15th Dalai Lama.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tibetan Buddhists regard the Dalai Lama as Avalokiteshvara’s earthly incarnation, a bodhisattva of compassion who directs others toward enlightenment. Conventionally, the identification of his successor is exclusively conducted by the Dalai Lama or his designated appointee, utilizing visions, omens, and consultations with senior lamas and protectors.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his address, he said that only the trust he founded and has been imbued could appoint his successor, and that \u201cno one else has any authority to interfere in this matter.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a sub-underscoring to Chinese officials who have been trying to insert themselves into the conversation. Understanding the country\u2019s proclivities for impatience, this statement was most likely directed toward them. Naturally, the Chinese government had a tort reply to the Nobel Peace Prize winner, as a Foreign Ministry spokesperson shared that \u201cany succession planning must comply with laws and regulations.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t his first skirmish with China. Following his recognition in 1937, the Dalai Lama began serving as the temporal leader of Tibet in 1950, which is about the same time when <\/span>China started annexing the region<\/span><\/a>. For nine years, China invaded the Tibetan region and parcelled out the land.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, in 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped to India, where he continues to live, and established the independent Tibetan government-in-exile. Since that day, monks and nuns have strenuously protested their independence from the Chinese government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The protests began turning violent in 2009. Since that year, nearly <\/span>140 instances of self-immolation<\/span><\/a> have occurred (i.e., setting themselves on fire, as seen in central China\u2019s <\/span>Tiananmen Square in 2001<\/span><\/a>). Understanding how volatile debates can get about Tibetan independence and Chinese intrusion, the Dalai Lama took a stand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think His Holiness feels the need to reassure people by basically letting them know that he is thinking about the succession,\u201d Thupten Jinpa, his English translator of four decades, said in a phone interview from India last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2011, the <\/span>Dalai Lama insinuated <\/span><\/a>that said institution did not \u201cnecessarily have to continue at all.\u201d Since then, cooler heads have prevailed, and followers will have their spiritual leader, but maybe not in the way they considered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most controversial statements from the Dalai Lama\u2019 came from his March 2025 book \u201c<\/span>Voice of the Voiceless,<\/span><\/a>\u201d when he wrote that his successor would be \u201cborn in the free world,\u201d which is to say, \u201coutside China.\u201d While he has never backed down from that statement, he did say from the pre-recorded address inside Potala Palace in Lhasa (the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China) that \u201cour Dalai Lama will be reborn, and the institution will carry on.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although China believes that a \u201cpolitical exile\u201d has \u201c<\/span>no right to represent the Tibetan people at all,<\/span><\/a>\u201d no country is telling the Dalai Lama how to think or follow tradition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, the Dalai Lama used the term \u201clive on\u201d to describe the Lamas’ code because when he is reincarnated, his spirit will go wherever it needs. And the people will follow.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid skepticism among Tibetan Buddhist adherents concerned about the Dalai Lama approaching his 90th birthday, the 14th Dalai Lama has affirmed: \u201cThe institution of the Dalai Lama will continue.\u201d\u00a0 According to Tibetan Buddhists’ beliefs, the \u201cspirit of the Dalai Lama\u201d reincarnates into the body of a child who is chosen at an early age. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDalai Lama: 'The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The aging Dalai Lama confirms his institution will continue, declaring only he can appoint his successor despite China\u2019s pressure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dalai Lama: 'The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The aging Dalai Lama confirms his institution will continue, declaring only he can appoint his successor despite China\u2019s pressure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T18:46:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Dalai-Lama_credit-Left-Christopher-Michel-commons-wikimedia-org-Right-Hinduism-Times-YouTube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shawn Paul Wood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dalai Lama: 'The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.'","description":"The aging Dalai Lama confirms his institution will continue, declaring only he can appoint his successor despite China\u2019s pressure.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dalai Lama: 'The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.'","og_description":"The aging Dalai Lama confirms his institution will continue, declaring only he can appoint his successor despite China\u2019s pressure.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-07-02T18:46:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Dalai-Lama_credit-Left-Christopher-Michel-commons-wikimedia-org-Right-Hinduism-Times-YouTube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Shawn Paul Wood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on","name":"Dalai Lama: 'The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Dalai-Lama_credit-Left-Christopher-Michel-commons-wikimedia-org-Right-Hinduism-Times-YouTube.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-02T18:46:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-02T18:46:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"The aging Dalai Lama confirms his institution will continue, declaring only he can appoint his successor despite China\u2019s pressure.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Dalai-Lama_credit-Left-Christopher-Michel-commons-wikimedia-org-Right-Hinduism-Times-YouTube.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Dalai-Lama_credit-Left-Christopher-Michel-commons-wikimedia-org-Right-Hinduism-Times-YouTube.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Left: Christopher Michel \/ commons.wikimedia.org | Right: Hinduism Times \/ YouTube"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/dalai-lama-the-institution-of-the-dalai-lama-will-live-on#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dalai Lama: ‘The Institution of the Dalai Lama Will Live On.’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28124,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28118\/revisions\/28124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}