Recognition, Succession And The Reincarnation Dispute

A new Dalai Lama is identified as the reincarnation, or tulku, of the previous holder, typically a child found some years after the death of his predecessor. Search parties of senior lamas historically relied on visions at the oracle lake Lhamo Latso, prophetic signs left by the deceased Dalai Lama, and tests in which candidate children were asked to identify possessions belonging to their predecessor. Under Qing dynasty oversight in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some recognitions were also confirmed by drawing lots from a golden urn, a procedure the Chinese state has since invoked as precedent for its own claimed authority.

The fourteenth and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was recognized in 1937 and enthroned in 1940 while still a child, decades before his exile. He has stated publicly that any future reincarnation, should the institution continue at all, would be recognized in accordance with Tibetan Buddhist tradition and outside the control of the Chinese government, and has raised the possibility that the office might not be reincarnated in the traditional sense. The People's Republic of China maintains that state approval is legally required for the recognition of any reincarnated lama under regulations it issued in 2007, and has indicated it intends to select a successor through that process. Tibetan religious authorities in exile and the Chinese state hold irreconcilable positions on which recognition, if the two diverge, would be legitimate, a dispute this record states without adjudicating.