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Dalai Lama

The lineage of the Dalai Lama (or Dalai Lama ) is the most important lineage of reincarnation ( tulku ) postulated in Tibetan Buddhism and in the history of Tibet.

Recognized by his followers as an emanation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the Dalai Lama, in addition to his spiritual authority, exercised temporal power at the head of the Tibetan government of the Ganden Phodrang period ( 1642 - 1959 ) set up by the 5  Dalai-Lama between 18th  century and the middle of the 20th  century in a theocracy.

Current Holder Tenzin Gyatso ( 14thDalai Lama)
Creation	1391
First holder	Gedun Drub (1st Dalai Lama)
Last holder	Tenzin Gyatso ( 14 Dalai-Lama)
Official residence	Dharamsala
Website	http://www.dalailama.com

In 1952, the 14th Dalai Lama took initiative to create a social-democratic by appointing committee reforms. The 1959 Tibetan exodus saw around 100,000 Tibetans follow the Dalai Lama into exile in India where he created the Tibetan government in exile which he led and democratized until March 2011, when he retired from politics as an amendment Constitution of the Tibetan Parliament in exile authorizes. For him, the political role of the Dalai Lamas is outdated and must give way to democracy. 

In November 2018, he announced discussions for a new Tibetan spiritual leader chosen in his lifetime. The meeting is postponed following the death of Kathok Gets Rinpoche.

History of the Dalai Lamas 

The Dalai Lamas are first considered as the successive reincarnations of the first.

• 1391 - 1474  : 1st Dalai-Lama Gedun Drup

The 1st Dalai-Lama-based Tsang in the region around the Tashilhunpo is the basis of a power supported by the population.

• 1475 - 1542  : 2nd Dalai Lama, Gedun Gyatso.

The 2nd Dalai Lama was brought to Tashilhunpo where he remained until the age of 16-17 before leaving to study in Lhassa where he became the abbot of the Dépung monastery. Its fame extends to Lhasa and central Tibet. He goes to southern Tibet where he builds the Chorgyal monastery. There he defines the Dalai Lamas identification system based on visions to be collected in Lake Palden Lhamo, a system that continues until the 14th Dalai Lama. At the end of his reign, his popularity spread from central Tibet to Kongpo and Dagpo., two regions of southern Tibet. This increase in popularity opens the way for 3e Dalai Lama who travels to Mongolia where he converted the Mongols to Buddhism.

• 1543 - 1588  : 3th Dalai-Lama Sonam Gyatso

Sonam Gyatso, then Abbot of Drépung, was the first to receive, May 15, 1578, from the Mongol dzungar Altan Khan the title of Dalai Lama, and his Tibetan equivalent of Gyatso will then be given to the whole lineage. It does not yet have any power other than spiritual (see also Relations between Tibet and Mongolia ). If his role is then limited to Tibet, he nevertheless becomes the spiritual master of the Mongol Empire, bringing together Dzoungars, Khalkhas, and Tchakhars by Altan Khan.

• 1589 - 1616  : 4th Dalai-Lama Yonten Gyatso

Mongolian, he is the grandson of Altan Khan. His tutor Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen is the first to bear the title of Panchen Lama.

• 1617 - 1682  : 5th Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, "the Great Fifth"

In 1642, Lobsang Gyatso, known as the Great Fifth, was proclaimed ruler of Tibet Güshi Khan, leader of the Mongol qoshots based in Kokonor ( Qinghai ) and having captured the Tsaidam and northern Tibet 15. During his reign, the Dalai Llamas received temporal power over Tibet. They become, with the regents, the heads of the Tibetan government. Lhasa is the capital of Tibet and the Potala was built as the residence of the Dalai Lama and the seat of government. According to Roland Bars, the rule of the 5th Dalai Lama results in the unification of Tibet into one nation. Its independent political power extends to all the former Tibetan provinces, including Kham and Amdo. Regent Sangye Gyatso hid his death for 14 years from the Tibetans, the Mongol princes of the Qoshot Khanate (then ruled by Dalai Khan (1668 - 1697)) and the Emperor of China (then Kangxi (1661 - 1722)) who did not. forgave neither the regent nor in Tibet.

• 1683 - 1706  : 6th Dalai-Lama Tsangyang Gyatso

Inducted at the end of 1697 at the Potala Palace, he showed indifference to his religious duties to the point of renouncing his monastic vows but not his temporal duties which he assumed in 1702. His attitude caused scandal. Lkhazang Khan, who wanted to get rid of this Dalai Lama, had him taken to China in 1706. Officially, he died on the way. Lhazang Khan installs a Dalai Lama of their choice Potala, but in the meantime, the religious discovered in Kham a child who is designated as a true reincarnation. The Emperor Kangxi had doubts about the authenticity of the 6th Dalai Lama. Despite this, he decided not to challenge the institution of reincarnation but to use it to his advantage because of its influence on Tibetan and Mongolian sociéts, putting trülkus its own service

• 1708 - 1757  : 7th  Dalai-Lama Kelzang Gyatso

In 1717, the Mongols, Dzoungars - Oïrats, killed Lkhazang Khan and pillaged Lhassa (including the Potala) to adorn their capital. The 7th Dalai Lama was imprisoned. It was put back in place by the Manchus in December 1720, a few months after they had taken Lhassa from the Dzoungars.

In 1756, the 7th Dalai Lama withdrew from the world. He died the following year. The exercise of power is provided from 1757 to 1777 by the 6th Demo Tulku, Ngawang Jampel Deleg Gyatsho named regent of Tibet by Emperor Qianlong until the majority of the next Dalai Lama. This will be the start of a well-established system where each regent will necessarily be a tulku.

• 1758 - 1804  : 8th Dalai-Lama Jamphel Gyatso.

He never really wields power. This was exercised by the regent Tshemoling I from 1777 to 1786, then by the regent Kundeling I from 1789 to 1810.

• 1806 - 1815  : 9th Dalai-Lama Lungtok Gyatso.

He died at the age of 9. The regent, Kundeling I, exercised power from 1789 to 1810, followed by Demo II from 1811 to 1819.

• 1816 - 1837  : 10th Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso.

Died at 21, he did not reign, the regent, Demo II, ensuring the exercise of power from 1811 to 1819, followed by Tsemoling II from 1819 to 1844.

• 1838 - 1856  : 11th Dalai-Lama Khendrup Gyatso.

Died at 18, he does not reign, power remaining in the hands of Regent Reting I from 1845 to 1862, followed by Regent Shatra from 1862 to 1864.

• 1856 - 1875  : 12th  Dalai-Lama Trinley Gyatso 

He reigned from 1873 to 1875, following the regent Ditru who exercised power from 1864 to 1872.

• 1876 - 1933  : 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, “The Great Thirteenth”.

Inducted in 1879, he reigned from 1895 to 1933, following the regent Demo III who exercised power from 1886 to 1895. Around 1898 (some sources give 1920), he abolished the death penalty, except in cases of high treason.

In 1904, he fled to Mongolia then to Amdo in the face of the irruption of a British expeditionary force, before regaining his throne in 1909 following the agreements made by China with Great Britain.

In 1910, he fled Lhasa again, this time to British India, in front of the troops sent by the imperial government. He returned in 1913 with the fall of the Qing Empire and the establishment of the Republic of China. For the first time since the beginning of the 18th centuryth  century, there are no more soldiers or imperial representatives. Matthew Kapsteininvalidates this claim stating that the middle of the 19th  century, the Qing were unable to maintain a military presence in Central Tibet.

Proclaiming what is variously interpreted as the independence of Tibet or the end of the priest-protector relationship between the Dalai Lama and the emperor, he begins a series of reforms aimed at modernizing the administration, justice, education, and medicine. He also creates a Tibetan army. However, in 1926, faced with the rejection movement among the conservative elements of the Tibetan elite and the demands of young army officers, he put an end to the entire program. The 13th Dalai Lama headed from 1912 to 1933, an independent Tibet de facto, without obtaining her international recognition or reach into a modern State.

• 1935 -until now: 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso

Buddhist monk of the Gelugpa school, he is enthroned as the temporal and spiritual leader of the Tibetans onNovember 17, 1950, one month after the start of the Chinese army's intervention in Tibet. The 17 Point Agreement on the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was concluded onMay 23, 1951Beijing between delegates from the 14th Dalai Lama and the People's Republic of China: Tibet, who knew since 1912 de facto independence, to mark the return Beijing Tibet under Chinese sovereignty.

In 1959, he went into exile in India where he created the Tibetan government in exile which he led until March 2011, the date of his political retirement in favor of a Tibetan democracy. Currently living in Dharamsala, he is considered the highest spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and by most Tibetans as an offshoot of Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion.. He pleads for the independence of Tibet until 1973, then for what he calls the "real autonomy" of the whole of Tibet within China. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee and others, he has consistently worked to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict through non-violence.

Origin of the name 

The Dalai Lama is a monk reincarnate school Gelug, one of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Tsongkhapa, Master of 1st of the lineage.

The name is the title given to Dalai Lama May 15, 1578 by the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan to Sonam Gyatso, 3th of his reincarnation lineage, when they met near the Mongolian-Tibetan border in the Tsavchaal Kokonor, at Thegchen Chonkhor Monastery. The meaning of the word Dalai is gathering of large amounts of water collected en masse. Altan Khan chose this term because it implied that Sonam Gyatso was the head of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He thus wanted his own political project to be pursued by Sonam Gyatso.

Dalai is a Mongolian term. It is a combination of Dalai, the equivalent or translation of the Tibetan word gyatso. It is an adaptation of the Mongolian title of Dalaïin Khan. It is part of the name of Sonam Gyatso who was the first to bear the title of Dalai Lama. Lama, is a Tibetan word used in an honorary way to designate in particular the reincarnated masters of Buddhism. Some authors have roughly translated the Dalai Lama as “Ocean of Wisdom”.

Status and authority of the Dalai Lama 

Spiritual authority 

On a spiritual level, the Dalai Lamas are regarded by Tibetan Buddhists as emanations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion (“Chenrezig” in Tibetan, “ Avalokiteshvara ” in Sanskrit). Yumiko Ishihama demonstrated in 1993 that reference is made to this belief in the biography of the 1st Dalai Lama written in 1494.

Bodhisattvas choose, following the Mahayana path, to be reborn for the benefit of all beings.

As the embodiment of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Tibetans revere the Dalai Lamas as gods responsible for the representation and protection of Tibet and the Tibetan people.

The 14th Dalai Lama often evokes this plan "  Chenrezig  " that would have to materialize the prediction of Sakyamuni Buddha of the advent of Buddhism in Tibet. From the 1st to the 5th Dalai Lama, they help to protect and guide the Tibetan people in this way.

As the Dalai Lama constitute a line of tulkus, reincarnated masters, his monks and spiritual masters, often including the Panchen Lama, must after the death of a Dalai Lama, initiate an investigation to seek his reincarnation. Oracles, including the oracle of Nechung, the state oracle of Tibet, are often consulted. Child candidates are interviewed for signs such as recognition of objects possessed by the previous Dalai Lama. The young tulku is then brought to a monastery to receive the dharmas (Buddhist teachings).

The title of this line of tulkus was given by Emperor Mongolian Altan Khan translation of the name of the 3th Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. It is said that from the second incarnation, the child remembered his past lives and the names of the dignitaries around the first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drup.

As the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist community, the Dalai Lama represents all schools (not only that of the “  gelugpa  ” to which he traditionally belongs, but also the Kagyüpa, Sakyapa and Nyingmapa schools ). According to Mick Brown, the spiritual authority of the Dalai Lama was respected by the ancient schools of Tibetan Buddhism (kagyu, nyingma and sakya), which recognized in him the “king of Tibet”.

According to Arjia Rinpoche, if the Dalai Lama is the highest political figure, in matters of religious authority he and the Panchen Lama are at the same level.

The 14th Dalai Lama, recognized Jetsun Dhampa Khutukhtu as Bogd Gegen, that is to say, head of Buddhism in Mongolia and chief Jonangpa. He also recognized Urgyen Trinley Dorje as the 17th Karmapa, the school's chief Karma- Kagyu.

Political authority

The Gaden Phodrang is a dual system of government Buddhist, uniting spiritual function and time function and combining religious and secular (or civilians) 46, 47. This Buddhist government was established in 1642 by the abbot of the Dépung monastery, Lobsang Gyatso. The gelugpas, who oppose the Karmapa (supported by the prince of Shigatse), appeal to Güshi Khan, chief of the Mongol tribe of Qoshot. It invaded Tibet in 1640, dethroned King Tsang and empowers Lobsang Gyatso, who became a simple monk, as 5th Dalai Lama, Head of State. It is the first of the Dalai Lamas to exercise temporal power.

In 1645, he decided to install his government in Lhassa in a building, the Potala, which he had built on a hill where there was a pavilion founded by King Songtsen Gampo. He built the central white part, the red part being added by Sangyé Gyatso in 1690. The Potala became the center of the religious and political power of the Tibetan theocracy.

The 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso was enthroned in late 1697 in the Potala. He showed indifference to his religious duties to the point of renouncing his monastic vows, but not his temporal duties.

The 8th Dalai Lama, Jamphel Gyatso, never exercised real power. After him until 13th Dalai Lama, none lived to exercise political authority.

The Dalai Lama directed both religious and secular affairs, through two main organs of government: the Religious Council, yik-tsang, made up of four members of the monastic community, and the Council of Ministers, kashag, made up of four members, Shaped, including three lay people and one religious. The religious prime minister, chikyap chempo, and the secular prime minister, lönchen, acted as the liaison between the councils and the Dalai Lama. All the ministers of the Secular Council controlled the political, judicial, and fiscal affairs of Tibet. A Minister of Foreign Affairs, under the leadership of the Chigye Lönchen(Prime Minister of State), was created in the first half of the 20th century. Its role was advisory. Foreign policy has always been directed by the Dalai Lama or the regent. There was a National Assembly, tsongdu, meeting in serious circumstances, made up of some fifty personalities from Lhassa, including the abbots of the great monasteries. Its role was advisory.

In the provinces, the government was represented in the middle of the 20th century by five chikyap for U-Tsang ( Lhasa and Shigatse ) Gartok (Western Tibet), Kham (Chamdo, Eastern Tibet), Chang ( Nagchuka, Northern Tibet) and Lhoka (Lho-dzong, Southern Tibet). The dzong-pön, commanders of fortresses, responsible for maintaining order and taxes, depended on the chikyap. They had a great deal of independence.

Relationships between the Dalai Lama and the Mongol rulers.

Sonam Gyatso went to Mongolia at the invitation of Altan Khan, prince of Toumets, ruler of Mongolia, a northern part of China and the Tibetan region of Kokonor. Kubilai Khan's death marked the end of the protector-Lama relationshipuniting the Mongolian court and the sakyapa lama of Tibet, and Mongolia had returned to its old animist spirituality. Although Altan Khan had recently converted to Buddhism, the invitation was more political than spiritual. 

Altan Khan was keen to use religion to reunite heterogeneous Mongolian tribes and knew that the Gelugpa school in opposition to other older Buddhist schools lacked military protection. The historic meeting between Sonam Gyatso and Altan Khan took place in June 1578. Altan Khan proclaimed Buddhism the state religion of Mongolia and declared the resumption of the relationship of protector to the lama, and conferred the title of Dalai Lama to commemorate this revival and honor Sonam Gyatso. The latter being the 3rd  incarnation of Gendun Drup and the 3rd abbot of Dépung monastery, he was declared 3rd Dalai Lama.

The 3th Dalai Lama gave a Buddhist teaching to a large gathering of Mongolians gathered at Koko Khotan, capital of Altan Khan, and current Huhhot. It was on this site that Altan Khan built the first Mongolian monastery, Thegchen Chonkhor.

Relationships between the Dalai Lama and the Manchu Emperor of China 

The 5th Dalai Lama, who visited the Qing emperor in Beijing, restores the relationship Chö-yon (chaplain to the donor). This relationship was interpreted differently by the Qing emperors and the Tibetans.

For the geographer Louis Grégoire (1876), the Dalai Lama was dependent on the Emperor of China and chosen by the ambans  :

“The spiritual ruler of Thibet is the Dalai or Talé-Lama; it is always a child, incarnation of Buddha, chosen among three candidates, presented by the great lamaseries, by the ambassadors of the emperor of China. He delegates his temporal authority to a Rajah, called Nomekhan or Gyalbô, who governs with four ministers and sixteen mandarins, all appointed by an imperial diploma and revocable at the will of the emperor. Four thousand Chinese soldiers are distributed in the important stations, and Chinese postilions, a sort of gendarme, are in the post office. Four large principalities and several small ones are administered directly by Chinese agents. In recent times, vast territories, entirely Thibetian by language, customs, religion, have been united in Sse-tchouan and Yun-nan. "    

 -  Louis Grégoire.

According to the explorer Alexandra David-Néel to be inducted, the Dalai Lama had to have been recognized by the Chinese government. On the day of his accession, he had to bow down to a portrait of the emperor, thus making the act of vassal (the same was true of the Panchen Lama sitting in Shigatsé).

According to Françoise Wang-Toutain from the 18th  century, the Manchu empire that conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty began to interfere in the recognition of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lamas. After the removal of the 6th Dalai Lama, they had an important role in the enthronement of the 7th Dalai Lama. The golden urn, frequently presented as symbolizing the power of Qing Tibet, was donated in 1781 by Emperor Qianlong in the 8th Dalai Lama. The names of the candidates were entered and after prayers, an imperial representative had to draw one by lot. 

However, the Tibetans managed to avoid its use, or not give it the last word. To recognize the 9th Dalai Lama, the regent said positive identification and use of the urn were useless. For the 10th, 11th, and 12th Dalai Lamas, the urn was used more to endorse the choice that Tibetans following opérèrent traditions. For Anne Chayet, if the urn was used, its verdict never thwarted the choice of the monks, the Qing no longer having the strength to impose this constraint. However, she was not used when designating the 13th Dalai Lama.

Relationships between the Dalai Lama and the People's Republic of China 

It was in 1950, at the age of fifteen, that the current Dalai Lama became head of state and of the Tibetan government.

In 1951, following the signing of the 17 Point Agreement, which recognizes China's sovereignty over Tibet, he promises to cooperate with China.

In 1954, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (PRC), becoming the first Dalai Lama in history to hold the post of a Chinese state leader.

In 1956, he became chairman of the preparatory committee for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. newly created. The Dalai Lama remained in Tibet until March 1959, when he was forced into exile in India, following the suppression of the Tibetan uprising of 1959. He established in India, in Dharamsala, a Tibetan government in exile.

Since his exile, the Dalai Lama has been systematically denounced by the Chinese government, which qualifies him as “independence”. Despite this, the Dalai Lama perseveres in the path of non-violence and calls on China to negotiate to achieve a political compromise. March 9, 1961, he appealed to the United Nations in favor of restoring Tibet's independence. Then, after the opening of Deng Xiaoping who declared in 1979 that apart from independence any subject could be discussed, the Dalai Lama opted for the policy of the Middle Way, in the mutual interest for the Tibetans and the Chinese. This path advocated by the Dalai Lama in his negotiations with the Chinese government proposes to reunite into a democratically self-managed administrative entity the Tibetan territories divided into five zones attached to Chinese provinces. Its objective is to preserve the Tibetan religion and culture allowing Tibetans to manage their socio-economic development, leaving China responsible for defense and foreign affairs. However, according to the Chinese writer Wang Lixiong, he did not legally binding promise on this point and can fall back at any time to a position calling for independence. If discussions between emissaries of the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari andKelsang Gyaltsen, along with representatives of the Chinese government began in 2002, no direct negotiations between the Dalai Lama, his government in exile and the Chinese government have yet started.

According to Students for a Free Tibet and Fox Butterfield, during the Cultural Revolution in Tibet, most monasteries and religious buildings were destroyed, and monks and nuns were imprisoned and tortured. According to the 14th Dalai Lama, even today, not only Tibetans are severely repressed and prevented from expressing themselves, but in addition, they undergo intense pressure of a political settlement. "If nothing changes, Tibetan culture risks disappearing within fifteen years", affirmed the Dalai Lama in 2007.

Today in China, the Tibetan Buddhist cult of the Gelugpa school is officially authorized by the central government, even in Beijing in the very old temple of Yonghe. However, according to Dr. John Powers, a specialist in religion and Tibetan culture at the Australian National University, Tibetan monks are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama.

International organizations denounce the repression of religion in Tibet  : put in house arrest in 1995, the Panchen Lama designated by the 14th Dalai Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, destruction in 2001 of the Serthar Buddhist institute founded by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, placed under house arrest, and disappeared under questionable circumstances or even Tenzin Delek sentenced to life imprisonment Rinpoche in 2005.

Great masters of Tibetan Buddhism were forced into exile: Rigdzin Namkha Gyatso Rinpoche in 1998 and the 17th Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje on the eve of the year 2000.

The 17th  Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is supported by numerous personalities, including that of President George W. Bush, and more moderately, by Barack Obama, and institutions worldwide for his nonviolent struggle for the freedom of Tibet. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on October 17, 2007.

According to the 14th Dalai Lama, if "the movement for Tibet has attracted wide global support, it is because of the universal principles that the Tibetan people have incorporated in their struggle. These principles are non-violence, democracy, dialogue, compromise, respect for the sincere concerns of others, and for our common environment ”.

The popularity of the Dalai Lama among Tibetans 

According Dawa Norbu, during the Sino-Tibetan subsequent to 1950, the 14th Dalai Lama became a pan-Tibetan representation symbolizing the values of Tibetan culture and aspirations of the Tibetan people. Although Tibetans inside and outside Tibet perceive the Dalai Lama as their rightful ruler, this does not mean the restoration of the "old regime" as both the Dalai's constitutional declarations emphasize. lama and the political aspirations of the Tibetan people. The Dalai Lama's constitution projects in exilereflect the direction taken by the politicized section of the Tibetan people in Tibet. As Ronald Schwartz notes, Tibetans now combine their struggle for independence with demands for democracy and respect for human rights. 

This is explained by the modern context of Tibetans after 1959 in Tibet as in exile.

In Tibet, the Communists propagated an egalitarian ideology where fairness and freedom are the new canons, although little practiced in minority areas. This contradiction is the ideological and political basis of the Tibetan intelligentsia against Chinese rule in Tibet.

In exile, it was mainly the positive influence of the functioning of Indian democracy that sparked the spread of democratic sentiments among Tibetan refugees despite a cult of personality around the Dalai Lama and his family. Since 1951, there has been a gulf between the realistic aspirations of the elites and the popular aspirations for independence. These ideas are suppressed by the Chinese Communist regime in Tibet, but in the long term, the latter cannot resolve the Tibetan question. 

With the globalization of the Chinese economy and the emergence of democracy, the People's Republic of China cannot remain an isolated monolithic Maoist bloc.

In this situation, it is possible that only the Dalai Lama can convince the Tibetan nationalist masses to accept realistic solutions to the conflict in Tibet.

The last Dalai Lama 

Glenn H. Mullin explains how he was, at the end of the 1970s, at the origin of a rumor according to which Tenzin Gyatso was the last in the line of the Dalai Llamas, a rumor which took on such magnitude that a biography on the 14th Dalai Lama was published under this title provocative: the Last Dalai Lama?

In The Last Dalai Lama?, published in 1986, Michael Harris Goodman evokes a prophecy that the Tibetan people would lose both their country and the Dalai Lama. Thereafter, he would find them both but the 14th Dalai Lama would be the last of the line.

In a conversation with the author, Tenzin Gyatso explains that the title holder, he plans to pass it in his lifetime to a successor known for his erudition in theology, who could be replaced every seven years.

The Dalai Lama told Goodman that it is possible that he is the last, but that there is no clear prophecy about it. He clarified that the choice of a Dalai Lama by the Tibetan people is a question of the usefulness of this title as an institution. But regarding his own rebirth, as a Mahayana Buddhist, he adds “as long as there is suffering in the world, I will come back”.

For its part, the Chinese government has declared that the next Dalai Lama will be born in China and will be chosen by China. The Dalai Lama, however, said:

“If the present situation in Tibet remains the same, I will be reborn outside Tibet, far from the control of the Chinese authorities. It's logic. The very purpose of a reincarnation is to continue the unfinished work of the previous incarnation. So if the Tibetan situation is still not resolved, it is logical that I be reborn in exile, to continue my unfinished work. "

For him, the next Dalai Lama could be a woman or even a non-Tibetan. Convinced for a long time of the virtues of democracy, he envisages that the neighbor can be appointed by himself, or by an assembly of lamas. His successor could be the current Karmapa, yet head of a Tibetan Buddhist school different from his own, or the Tibetan Prime Minister, or even no one: if the institution poses more problems than it can solve, he has the power. to abolish it.

In 2007, two monks from the Tashilhunpo monastery in Tibet reportedly committed suicide, following an exclusion campaign led by Chinese officials. Both monks were involved in the recognition of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and could therefore be called to recognize the next Dalai Lama.

The 17th  Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje, who escaped from Tibet on the eve of the year  2000, arrived in India while the 14th  Dalai Lama announced his retirement as head of the Tibetan government in exile.

Asked in March 2009 about the possibility that he could succeed the title of Dalai Lama, Orgyen Trinley Dorje declared: "If the opportunity is given to me, I will do my best", adding: "the Dalai Lama was very effective in laying the foundation for the struggle of the Tibetans in exile. It is up to the next generation to build on these foundations and move forward ”.

In February 2010, Tenzin Gyatso said, “If a majority of Tibetans feel that the institution of the Dalai Lama no longer makes sense, then this institution must cease to exist, there is no problem. ", Adding laughing" It seems that the Chinese are more worried about this institution than me. ".

The 14th Dalai Lama announced, on March 10, 2011, that he plans to relinquish his post as head of the Tibetan government in exile, believing that the time had come to give way to a new "freely elected" leader: "My desire to pass on authority has nothing to do with see with a will to renounce responsibilities, ” said the Dalai Lama during a speech in Dharamsala, in northern India, where Tibetans in exile live. “It's for the long-term good of Tibetans. It's not because I feel discouraged, ” he added.

In March 2011, Tenzin Gyatso, who in 1990 gradually initiated democratization of the Tibetan government in exile, asked the Tibetan Parliament in exile for a constitutional amendment allowing him to achieve his political retirement, for him, the institution of the Dalai Lamas was outdated. and must give way to democracy.

In September 2011, specifying his previous statements regarding the future of the institution, the Dalai Lama announced in a document published at the end of a gathering of officials of the four spiritual schools of Tibetan Buddhism that "When I will approach When I turn 90, I will consult the grand lamas of Tibetan Buddhist traditions, Tibetans and other followers of Tibetan Buddhism and will reassess the institution of the Dalai Lama to see whether or not it should be sustained. 

My decision will be made on that basis. Apart from the reincarnation recognized through these legitimate methods, no candidate can claim recognition or approval, if he has been chosen for political purposes by anyone. Regarding the possibility of the Chinese government appointing his successor, he said that “if the Chinese government intends to take charge of naming my reincarnation, then it must accept the religion and the concept of future life. They must also, in the first place, find the reincarnations of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Only then will they be able to find my reincarnation ”. Two days later, the Chinese government takes a stand and declares that "The title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is illegal in any other case".

In May 2012, he said he could be the last Dalai Lama, and that many young Buddhist monks, including the Karmapa, could become the spiritual leaders of Tibetan Buddhism.

On September 7, 2014, he officially announces that he will be the last of the line, specifying that the institution was mainly important because of his political power. The Chinese government denies him the right to make this decision. This declaration would aim to counter the Chinese government in its attempt to recover its function.

In 2015, Padma Choling, chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, claimed that the Dalai Lama's statements suggesting that he would have no successor when he died were "blasphemy against Tibetan Buddhism.