Dalai Lama To Issue July 2 Message, Expected To Address Succession
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.
While China condemns him as a rebel and separatist, the internationally-recognised Dalai Lama describes himself as a "simple Buddhist monk".
Many exiled Tibetans fear China will name a successor to bolster control over a territory it poured troops into in 1950.
The Dalai Lama stepped down as his people's political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans around the world.
- 'Free world' -
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, which is about nine of them, meeting with His Holiness (the Dalai Lama)", Tsering told 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 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 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 -- 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".
The Dalai Lama has said it does not seek full independence for Tibet, but rather to pursue a long-standing "Middle Way" policy seeking greater autonomy.
The current Dalai Lama was identified in 1936 when, aged two, he passed a test by pointing to objects that had belonged to the post's previous occupier.
He was hailed as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, a role that stretches back more than 600 years.
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