Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, is served food on his 90th birthday celebration at the Tsuglagkhang in the northern town of Dharamshala, on July 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The succession of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is a thorn in China-India relations, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi said on Sunday (July 13, 2025), as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar prepares to visit China for the first time since deadly border clashes in 2020.
Before the celebrations this month for his 90th birthday that were attended by senior Union Ministers, the Dalai Lama riled China again by saying it had no role in his succession. Tibetans believe the soul of any senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated after his death, but China says the Dalai Lama’s succession will also have to be approved by its leaders.
Yu Jing, a Chinese embassy spokesperson, said on X that some people from strategic and academic communities in India had made “improper remarks” on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
“As professionals in foreign affairs, they should be fully cognisant of the sensitivity of issues related to Xizang,” Ms. Yu said, using the Chinese name for Tibet.
“The reincarnation and succession of the Dalai Lama is inherently an internal affair of China,” she said. “(The) Xizang-related issue is a thorn in China-India relations and has become a burden for India. Playing the ‘Xizang card’ will definitely end up shooting oneself in the foot.”
Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who sat next to the Dalai Lama during the birthday festivities a week ago, has said that as a practising Buddhist, he believes only the spiritual guru and his office have the authority to decide on his reincarnation.
The External Affairs Ministry said on July 4, 2025, two days before the Dalai Lama’s birthday, that New Delhi does not take any position or speak on matters concerning beliefs and practices of faith and religion.
Mr. Jaishankar the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tianjin in northern China on July 15, 2025 and hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines.
This will be one of the highest-level visits between India and China since their relations nosedived after a deadly border clash in 2020 that killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
Late last month, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held talks with his Chinese counterpart in China on the sidelines of a Defence Ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Published – July 13, 2025 07:13 pm IST
