Who will be the next Dalai Lama? As he turns 90, the leader is making plans

Having lived in exile since 1959, the Tibetan leader believes his successor must come from the scattered community living outside repressive Chinese rule

Tucked away behind a small green gate off a bustling street in Dharamshala, a former British hill station in northern India, schoolchildren in pristine blazers play in the intermittent monsoon rains. They may not know it, but it’s possible that one of them might be the future spiritual leader of a six million-strong community of Tibetans.

Outside, the city is buzzing. Next Sunday, July 6, the 14th Dalai Lama will turn 90. Along with his celebrations he will also address, after 88 years as the figurehead of the Tibetan people, the question of his succession. He is expected to announce that when he dies a living successor will take up his mantle; probably a young child just like he was when he was chosen.

“It would be best if he stays longer, until 113,” says nine-year-old Tenzin Wangmo, at the TCV school for Tibetan children. Her classmates are preparing to perform traditional guitar and dancing for next week’s celebrations.

Any one of them, part of Tibet’s second-largest community in exile based in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, could potentially be chosen as the next Dalai Lama. As could any of the thousands of Tibetan children living in India, some of them smuggled here and left behind by their families.

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