As the Dalai Lama turns 90 this month, he is focusing attention on the future of Tibetan Buddhism and the exiled Tibetan nation.
The spiritual leader, who led a flock of tens of thousands out of Tibet and into exile to escape Chinese persecution nearly seven decades ago, has promised to reveal a plan for naming his successor.
The Dalai Lama has hinted that he might upend established practices for his succession, as part of an apparent strategy to throw off the Chinese government and avoid a vacuum that Beijing can exploit as it seeks to control Tibetan Buddhism.
Here’s what you need to know:
Who is the Dalai Lama?
Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama.
He was born into a farming family in 1935 in what was then northeastern Tibet and is now Qinghai Province in China. He was recognized at age 2 as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama and afterward began monastic training and Buddhist philosophical studies.
Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1950. At age 16, the Dalai Lama became Tibet’s political leader, guiding the Tibetan people through the crisis. In 1959, during the Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama left the country for India with many of his followers, and he has never returned.