New Delhi:
As the world celebrates the 91st birthday of the Dalai Lama, Tibetans on July 6 continue the annual practice that has become a thorn in the flesh of Beijing since the Dalai Lama fled the region years ago.
The Dalai Lama’s birthday is organized every year by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and has always attracted thousands of people to come to Dharamsala for prayers, cultural programs, and other forms of gatherings. But unlike previous occasions, this time, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans will not be in attendance at his residence in McLeodganj.
According to his office, he travelled to Delhi in early June for the left knee replacement operation ahead of his stay in the Ladakh region during the summer period.
A Birthday Beijing Closely Watches
Last year’s birthday of the Dalai Lama was marked by the launch of the Year of Compassion campaign of the CTA that involved tree planting campaigns and Tibetan language promotion. However, this year inside Tibet, things turned out differently.
Human rights organizations have pointed out increased surveillance, censorship, and a crackdown against public celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Monks, students and other people have been asked to stop attending the Dalai Lama’s birthday celebrations; and monasteries have also been prevented from holding birthday-related activities.
Some of the people detained include a monk who shared an image with the Dalai Lama and two Tibetan singers, namely Ah Sang (true name Tsugte), because they posted the song Prince of Peace. Ah Sang was arrested in July 2025 and was released but arrested again weeks later before finally being released in January 2026. It is alleged that he was advised not to make public statements on his arrest.
The Struggle For The Next Dalai Lama
But the controversy over the Dalai Lama is much wider and goes beyond his birthday. In February 2025, two days before celebrating his 90th birthday, the Dalai Lama issued a statement in which he claimed that the only entity capable of recognizing his reincarnation is his official institution, the Gaden Phodrang Trust.
Reiterating the principle he declared in 2011, the Dalai Lama said that any government or institution has no right to participate in the reincarnation process of the Dalai Lama.
Beijing strongly objected to this claim.
Chinese officials working at the China Tibetology Research Center have argued that only Drepung Monastery in Lhasa has the right to recognize the next Dalai Lama, namely the 15th Dalai Lama, while the Chinese government claims that the next Dalai Lama must get the approval of the Chinese government.
The Chinese position is based on the 2007 Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas and 2017 Religious Affairs Regulation that stipulate that recognition of reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist leaders requires official approval.
Five United Nations human rights experts addressed a letter to Beijing in July 2025 expressing concerns regarding the regulations. The letter was officially disclosed two months later.
International Community’s Support To Dalai Lama
Support from several governments can be noted in connection with this issue. The US government has rejected the Chinese claims about the succession process, while the US Congress has adopted a bill authorizing the sanctioning of Chinese officials who would interfere in the process of selecting the next Dalai Lama.
In March 2026, the Czech Senate unanimously adopted a resolution in which it stated that the choice of the next Dalai Lama is an exclusive right of the Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhist community. China criticized the move as interference in its internal affairs.
President of the International Campaign for Tibet, Tencho Gyatso, called the statement of the Dalai Lama in 2025 a clear declaration of the fact that the right to recognize his successor belongs only to Tibetans and the Tibetan Buddhist community, and any interference by Beijing in this process should be rejected.
While thousands of Tibetans celebrate the birthday of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala this weekend, the 91st Dalai Lama’s birthday becomes more than a religious celebration. More than six decades after the Dalai Lama’s exile, the birthday continues to mark the struggle over faith, identity and legitimacy which Beijing has still failed to solve.
