Thousands of Tibetan Buddhists began streaming in India’s Himalayan town of Dharamshala on Sunday to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama, who said days ago that he plans to reincarnate after dying.
Hundreds of red-robed monks and nuns braved incessant rain and poured through the narrow streets of Dharamshala to make their way towards the main Dalai Lama temple, where the spiritual head was scheduled to deliver a speech. A crowd of Tibetans — some carrying ceremonial offerings — walked beside them.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has been living in exile since he fled Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959, and his birthday will be attended by thousands of his followers from around the world along with celebrities and officials from the United States and India.
Earlier this week, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Buddhist spiritual leader said he plans to reincarnate after his death, ending years of speculation that he might be the last person to hold the role. He also said that the next Dalai Lama should be found and recognized as per past Buddhist traditions.
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama said he hoped of living for decades more, until the age of 130.
In the past the Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born in the “free world” — outside China. Many exiled Tibetans, however, fear China will name its own successor to the Dalai Lama to bolster control over Tibet, a territory it poured troops into in 1950 and has ruled ever since.
China, which views the Dalai Lama as a separatist, has repeatedly said that it alone has the authority to approve the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. It also says it will reject anyone chosen without Beijing’s consent.
Recognized worldwide in his red robes and wide smile, the Dalai Lama describes himself as a “simple Buddhist monk.” But millions of Tibetan Buddhists worship him as living manifestations of Chenrezig, the Buddhist god of compassion.
The Dalai Lama was thrust onto the Tibetan throne in 1937. Soon after, Chinese troops swept into his homeland in the 1950s and crushed a failed uprising, forcing him to escape with thousands of his followers to India where he established a government in exile.
Since then, he has spent more than seven decades in exile and sustained a nation in exile by managing to build a community that’s kept the Tibetan culture and identity alive. The Dalai Lama has also become one of the world’s most recognizable figures while leading a Tibetan diaspora through their struggle for autonomy and opposition of China’s control of Tibet.
