India backs Dalai Lama's position on successor, contradicting China

4/7/2025 16:06

A senior Indian minister has said that only the Dalai Lama and the organization he has set up have the authority to identify his successor as the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, in a rare comment contradicting rival China's long-held position.



The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday that upon his death he would be reincarnated as the next spiritual leader and that only the Gaden Phodrang Trust would be able to identify his successor. He previously said the person would be born outside China.



Beijing says it has the right to approve the Dalai Lama's successor as a legacy from imperial times.



Kiren Rijiju, India's minister of parliamentary and minority affairs, made a rare statement on the matter on Thursday, ahead of visiting the Dalai Lama's base in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala for the religious leader's 90th birthday on Sunday.



"No one has the right to interfere or decide who the successor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be," Indian media quoted Rijiju as telling reporters.



In response to the remarks, China's foreign ministry warned India on Friday against interfering in its domestic affairs at the expense of bilateral relations, urging it to be prudent in its words and actions.