In new book, Dalai Lama tells followers to reject any successor chosen by China

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, writes in a new book that he intends to be reincarnated outside China and called on the Tibetan people to reject any successor chosen by Beijing.

The 89-year-old Buddhist monk’s declaration comes as Tibetan authorities—both sacred and secular—prepare to square off against China’s atheist Communist Party, which insists it alone has the right to select a new Dalai Lama after his death. It is a high-stakes fight central to the survival of Tibetan religion, culture and politics.

Reincarnation is the traditional means of determining the succession of Tibet’s most important leaders. And the Dalai Lama’s rebirth will be a matter of religious and geopolitical importance, and one that China sees as strategically critical.

The current Dalai Lama has played a central role in galvanizing international support for the Tibetan cause and rallying the Tibetan people inside and outside of China. It could be years after his death before his successor, likely to be chosen as a young child, can assume the mantle of leadership.

In “Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle With China for My Land and My People," a memoir published this week, the Dalai Lama decried “today’s dark period of Communist Chinese occupation" of Tibet, but said “nothing is immune to the law of impermanence." He said that Tibetan people have made clear to him that the Dalai Lama’s lineage must continue, and he said the choice of a successor should be made according to traditional practices and that lamas and monks would conduct the search. Born into a farming family in a village in northeastern Tibet, the current Dalai Lama was identified when he was 2 by senior Buddhist