The Dalai Lama prepares for his successor and to scupper Chinas plans to name their own

The Dalai Lama is going to announce details of how he is to be succeeded this week, as he prepares to turn 90 years old.Traditionally, a new Dalai Lama – leader of 7.7 million Tibetan Buddhists, addressed as His Holiness – is chosen through a mystical and complex set of divinely guided clues and symbols, overseen by Buddhism’s most senior monks.The monks are led by dream interpretations, meditations at sacred spots and consultations with oracles, a process which often takes years to complete.But Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has hinted longstanding rules such as his successor being found in the Tibet region and being a male under six years of age may not apply this time around.The holy man has even joked he could be reincarnated as a “mischievous blond woman” with a “very attractive face.”“Officials have said the Dalai Lama is expected to send a recorded address clarifying the course of succession,” Dr.Laura Harrington, a senior lecturer in the religion department at Boston University, told The Post.This is largely due to meddling from China, which is seeking to appoint its own successor.

The Communist country annexed Tibet in 1959, causing the Dalai Lama and then-Tibetan government to flee to Dharamshala, India, where they have been based in exile ever since.“In 2011, the Dalai Lama reserved the right to do three things,” said Harington.“He can end the lineage [meaning that the line of spiritual leaders could end with him], he can recognize a female successor and the successor can [come from] outside of Tibet.“They’re taking the very notion of Tibet and turning it into the whole world.

It’s radical, right?”The traditional hunt for a new Dalai Lama started with the death of his predecessor.In the case of the 13th Dalai Lama, during the process of him being mummified, his head is said to have turned itself from facing south to northeast, indicating where the 14th Dalai Lama would be found.A star-shaped fungus on the 13th Dala...