Ahead of his 90th birthday on 6 July, the still-youthful Fourteenth Dalai Lama put to rest (some of) the speculation about the future of his office after him. The Tibetan Buddhist leader, revered as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, confirmed that “the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue” after him. The statement, dated 21 May 2025, was released on 2 July at the start of the Fifteenth Tibetan Religious Conference in Dharamsala.
There have been, in recent times, some doubts about the continuity of the institution. Since the 1960s, the Dalai Lama (b. 1935) had himself, in an open-ended way, begun saying that if the Tibetan people believed that the institution of the Dalai Lama—over four hundred years old— had served its purpose, it should cease. He maintained that the decision would rest with Tibetans inside and outside Tibet, as well as Tibetan Buddhists and others with a meaningful connection with Tibet and its people. His followers across the Tibetan plateau, in exile, and around the world have, however, been urging him to affirm the continuation of the line, and the long-awaited statement that settles the question must have come as a reassurance, though not necessarily a surprise.