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Ti­betan spir­i­tu­al leader the Dalai Lama on Wednes­day said the cen­turies-old Ti­betan Bud­dhist in­sti­tu­tion will con­tin­ue af­ter his death, end­ing years of spec­u­la­tion that start­ed when he in­di­cat­ed that he might be the last per­son to hold the role.

Speak­ing at prayer cel­e­bra­tions ahead of his 90th birth­day on Sun­day, the No­bel Peace Prize-win­ning spir­i­tu­al head of Ti­betan Bud­dhism said that the next Dalai Lama should be found and recog­nised as per past Bud­dhist tra­di­tions, while sig­nalling that Chi­na should stay away from the process of iden­ti­fy­ing his suc­ces­sor.

The Dalai Lama’s suc­ces­sion plan is po­lit­i­cal­ly con­se­quen­tial for most Ti­betans who op­pose Chi­na’s tight con­trol of Ti­bet and have strug­gled to keep their iden­ti­ty alive, in their home­land or in ex­ile. It is al­so pro­found for Ti­betan Bud­dhists who wor­ship him as a liv­ing man­i­fes­ta­tion of Chen­rezig, the Bud­dhist god of com­pas­sion.