Dalai Lama's 90th birthday puts succession in focus
Revered figure: The Dalai Lama arriving to attend a Long Life Prayer offering ceremony in McLeod Ganj, ahead of his 90th birthday celebrations. — AFP
The Dalai Lama will issue a message on July 2, Tibet's government in exile said, days ahead of his 90th birthday and a hugely anticipated decision as to whether he will have an eventual successor.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk is expected to celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6 with huge crowds in northern India, his base since leaving his homeland fleeing Chinese troops in 1959.
He has said his 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.
Penpa Tsering, the sikyong or head of the government based in India's Himalayan hill town of McLeod Ganj, said that on July 2 there would be a meeting of the most senior Tibetan religious elders, or lamas.
'There will be a brief meeting of all the head lamas ... with His Holiness (the Dalai Lama),' Tsering told reporters on Wednesday, 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 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 Dalai Lama to continue.
The Dalai Lama has already said the Office of the Dalai Lama would hold the responsibility for the recognition of the next leader.
He has also made it clear that any successor would by necessity be 'born in the free world'. — AFP
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