Dalai Lama Asserts Right to Find Successor, Defying Beijing

The Dalai Lama asserted that only his office has the authority to identify his successor, even as China insisted that it must sign off on the next spiritual leader of Tibet.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Nobel laureate said in a video message published on Wednesday, just days before his 90th birthday. “I hereby reiterate that the Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter.”