Dalai Lama's successor may come from India, not China

New Delhi : The Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader from the Tibetan Buddhism, said on Monday that after he dies, his successor could be found in India; he also warned that any successor announced by China will not be respected.

The 14th Dalai Lama spoke to Reuters one day after Tibetans in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala marked the anniversary of his escape from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, disguised as a soldier.

He had fled to India in 1959 and since then he is working towards getting a global support  for linguistic and cultural autonomy in his remote and mountainous homeland.

China had been branding the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist. Talking about the probables from China post his death, the Dalai Lama said, "China considers Dalai Lama's reincarnation as something very important. They have more concern about the next Dalai Lama than me.

"In future, in case you see two Dalai Lamas come, one from here, in free country, one chosen by Chinese, then nobody will trust, nobody will respect (the one chosen by China). So that's an additional problem for the Chinese! It's possible, it can happen."

China, on the other hand, claims that they have a right to choose the successor as a legacy inherited from China's emperors.

Born in 1935, the current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two years old.