For subscribers
Dalai Lama at 90: Amid memories of a thump, a question – what next?
The end draws near for a presence that has been China’s most constant headache for nearly seven decades.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The Dalai Lama has announced that he will have a successor after his death, continuing a centuries-old tradition that has become a flashpoint in the tussle with China over Tibet’s future.
PHOTO: ATUL LOKE/NYTIMES
Follow topic:
It was 2008, and Beijing was all set to showcase its hosting of the Olympic Games, China’s coming-out party as it were. With global attention focused on the country, Tibetan protesters resisting Chinese control of their region used the moment to raise awareness of their cause. By April, some 100 of them had died, many setting themselves on fire.
Beijing was livid. The Dalai Lama, whose base has been the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala since shortly after fleeing Tibet in 1959 to escape the Chinese occupation of the region, was blamed for instigating the unrest. Then Premier Wen Jiabao denounced him as a “splittist”.
