AILSA CHANG, HOST:
After years of speculation, the Dalai Lama has finally addressed the question of his successor. Earlier today, the Tibetan spiritual leader said that after he dies, he will be born again. Omkar Khandekar reports from the Indian town of Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile.
OMKAR KHANDEKAR, BYLINE: For more than six decades, the Dalai Lama has campaigned against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, but he has been ambiguous about whether he will have a successor. This question was answered four days before his 90th birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).
KHANDEKAR: To find out, hundreds of Buddhist monks, disciples and journalists had gathered in the Himalayan town of Dharamshala on Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).
KHANDEKAR: First, they prayed. Then a frail-looking Dalai Lama appeared on screen and slowly read out a written statement in Tibetan.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DALAI LAMA: (Reading in Tibetan).
KHANDEKAR: He said the institution of the Dalai Lama would continue. A team of monks from his office will look for his successor as per tradition, and...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DALAI LAMA: (Reading in Tibetan).
KHANDEKAR: ...No one else would have a right to interfere. Analyst Kate Saunders says this last bit was aimed at China and its leader Xi Jinping. Saunders leads the Tibet research network Turquoise Roof.
KATE SAUNDERS: Xi Jinping has adopted basically the same position as Mao, which is that in order to control Tibet, you need to control the religious elite and, in particular, the Dalai Lama.
KHANDEKAR: Hours after the announcement, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the appointment of Dalai Lama's successor will need Beijing's approval. The reaction only highlights the broken relationship between China and Tibet's exiled leaders. The two sides haven't had a formal dialogue since 2011. For Penpa Tsering, president of Tibet's government-in-exile, the problem lies in Beijing.
PENPA TSERING: We know for a fact that Tibet - China-Tibet conflict can be resolved only by talking with the Chinese government. But till such a time where you have a Chinese leader with common sense, right now, the possibilities are very weak.
KHANDEKAR: In the hours after the announcement, the mood amongst many of Dalai Lama's followers in Dharamshala seemed no different.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KHANDEKAR: A busker played the sarangi at the marketplace outside the Dalai Lama Temple. Elderly women sold Tibetan trinkets and little Lama bobble heads. One taxi driver Setting Tondoop (ph) explains that's because in their minds, Dalai Lama's reincarnation was never a question.
SETTING TONDOOP: (Non-English language spoken).
KHANDEKAR: "In Buddhism," he says, "everyone has a rebirth - a cycle known as samsara. That's how," he says, "the Dalai Lama would be born again."
TONDOOP: (Non-English language spoken).
KHANDEKAR: Just like one day, he will be, too.
Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, Dharamshala.
(SOUNDBITE OF BADBADNOTGOOD'S "TIMID INTIMIDATING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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