Dalai Lama : the institution
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How the Dalai Lama is chosen
July 3, 2025: The Times of India
How was the 14th Dalai Lama chosen?
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated after his death. The 14th Dalai Lama, born Lhamo Dhondup on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in northeastern Tibet, was identified as such a reincarnation when he was just two years old. A search party of the Tibetan govt made the decision based on several signs, including a vision revealed to a senior monk, the Dalai Lama’s website says. The search party was convinced when the toddler identified items that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama, exclaiming, “It’s mine, it’s mine”.
On Feb 22, 1940, Lhamo Dhondup was taken to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of today’s Tibet Autonomous Region, and officially installed as the leader of the Tibetan people. After becoming the Dalai Lama, Lhamo Dhondup took on the name of Tenzin Gyatso.
How will his successor be found?
The Dalai Lama on Wednesday said that the search for his successor should be carried out in “accordance with past tradition.” In his book Voice for the Voiceless , which came out in March 2025, the Dalai Lama wrote that his successor would be born outside China. The spiritual leader has lived in exile in northern India since 1959, after fleeing in the wake of a failed uprising against China’s Communist govt, which had moved in 1950 to seize control of Tibet.
The Dalai Lama was also the head of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, based in Dharamshala, but had given up its political leadership in 2011, retaining only his spiritual role. He set up the Gaden Phodrang Foundation in 2015 to “maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama”. He has said the body will be solely responsible for locating and recognising his successor. Wednesday’s announcement by the Dalai Lama ends years of speculation over whether he’d be the last person to hold the position.
The search for a Dalai Lama’s reincarnation begins only upon the incumbent’s death. It can take years for a new Dalai Lama to be identified and groomed to assume responsibilities.
What does China say?
China says it has the right to vet the Dalai Lama’s successor as a legacy from imperial times. A selection ritual, in which the names of possible reincarnations are drawn from a golden urn, dates to 1793, when the Qing dynasty ran the country. Chinese officials have repeatedly said that the process must follow national laws that decree the use of the golden urn and the birth of reincarnations within China’s borders. This was reiterated by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday, who stated that “the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must adhere to the principles of domestic search in China” and “approval by the central govt”.
But Tibetans see any Chinese role in the selection as an attempt by Beijing to exert its influence over their community. The Dalai Lama himself has said that “it is inappropriate for Chinese Communists, who reject religion, to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama”. In his book, he asked Tibetans to not accept “a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China”.
Beijing has branded the Dalai Lama — a Nobel Peace laureate — a “separatist” and prohibits display of his picture or public expressions of devotion towards him. In March this year, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson called him a political exile with “no right to represent the Tibetan people at all”. Beijing rejects allegations of repression of Tibetan peoples’ rights, saying that its rule ended serfdom and brought development to the territory.
What role could India, US play?
India is home to more than one lakh Tibetan Buddhists, who are free to study and work here. The Dalai Lama is much revered by Indians, and international relations experts say his presence in the country gives New Delhi a sort of leverage in its complex rivalry with China.
The US, which faces rising competition from China for global dominance, has maintained that it is committed to advancing the rights of Tibetans. American lawmakers have previously said they would not allow China to influence the choice of the Dalai Lama’s successor. In 2024, then US President Joe Biden passed a law aimed at pressuring Beijing into negotiations on Tibet’s demands for greater autonomy.
TNN WITH NYT INPUTS
The Gaden Phodrang Trust
Varinder Bhatia, July 2, 2025: The Indian Express
The term Gaden Phodrang refers to the residential quarters of the Dalai Lama lineage from the second Dalai Lama onward at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.
The 14th Dalai Lama announced on Wednesday (July 2) “that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue” and that the Gaden Phodrang Trust shall be the “sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation”.
“No one else has any…authority to interfere in this matter,” he said.
The “Statement Affirming the Continuation of the Institution of Dalai Lama” came four days before the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists turns 90. It is consistent with the statement that he made on September 24, 2011, that if it was decided at a future date “that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should continue and there is a need for the Fifteenth Dalai Lama to be recognized, responsibility for doing so will primarily rest on the concerned officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust”.
What is the Gaden Phodrang Trust, and what is its mandate?
Meaning of the name
The term Gaden Phodrang refers to the residential quarters of the Dalai Lama lineage from the second Dalai Lama onward at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.
After the Potala Palace was built (by a decree of the fifth Dalai Lama), the Dalai Lamas moved away from these quarters, and stayed at Potala Palace in winter and Norbulingka (built by the seventh Dalai Lama about 100 years after Potala) in summer. This tradition was followed until the 14th Dalai Lama’s escape from Lhasa to India in March 1959.
One of three institutions
The Gaden Phodrang Trust is one of three institutions associated with the Dalai Lama. Penpa Tsering, Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), said:
“There are three registered institutions that are related to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There is Gaden Phodrang Trust, which is a registered body in India and operates from the office of His Holiness, there is another Dalai Lama Trust, which [too] is a non-profit organisation, and the third is Gaden Phodrang Foundation, which is registered in Zurich.”
The Gaden Phodrang Trust was registered in 2011 in Dharamshala with the aim of recognising the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It is based in the office of the Dalai Lama, and is managed by the former Kalon Tripa (head of the CTA) Prof Samdhong Rinpoche, a senior monk and a close confidant of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama heads the trust, whose members include some other aides of the spiritual leader.
“What His Holiness reiterated today is that the institution of the Dalai Lama shall continue as per the traditions and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. There will be a 15th Dalai Lama, a 16th Dalai Lama and so on,” Rinpoche said.
Gaden Phodrang Foundation
The foundation is a tax-exempt Swiss nonprofit with its registered office in Zurich, and is supervised by the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs. It is funded by charitable contributions made by the founder and the public.
The Dalai Lama is the founder and president of the foundation, and Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa (India), Kelsang Gyaltsen (Switzerland), and Jamphel Lhundup (India), are its co-vice presidents.
The foundation says on its website that its aim is to maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama, and to promote basic human values, mutual understanding among religions, peace and non-violence, and protection of the environment.
While it works to preserve Tibetan culture and support the Tibetan people, the foundation also helps others in need, regardless of nationality or religion.
It seeks to promote better understanding between science and religion, supports efforts to provide access to knowledge from Buddhist science and philosophy, and funds a wide range of publications and translations.
The Dalai Lama Trust
The Dalai Lama Trust is a non-profit charitable organisation founded by the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009. It is headquartered in New Delhi but works with a range of partners internationally, too.
The purpose of the trust is to support the welfare of the Tibetan people and to promote human values, interfaith harmony, and world peace, which have been key elements of the Dalai Lama’s lifelong mission.
The objectives of the trust are to support Tibetan students and scholars and fund schools and educational institutions, particularly those that preserve Tibetan culture and language, and to encourage secular ethics and compassion through global programs and initiatives.
