The Dalai Lama on Sunday was seen wearing a cap embroidered with the word, “Team Taiwan” while watching a modern neo-techno performance of the traditional San Taizi (三太子) dance, as he celebrated his 90th birthday in Dharamsala, northern India.
The moment was captured in a video uploaded to his official social media platform.
President William Lai (賴清德) extended birthday greetings on X, writing: “Heartfelt wishes for Your Holiness’s 90th birthday. On this special occasion, we extend our great appreciation for your dedication to peace and human rights ... May you continue to illuminate the world with compassion and wisdom.”
Photo: screengrab from 14thGyalwaRinpoche’s Facebook account
Taiwanese members of the South India-based Gaden Shartse Norling Monastery presented the Dalai Lama with the cap and a baseball jersey during the celebration.
One member of the group, surnamed Liu (劉), told the Central News Agency yesterday that they had received an invitation in March and decided to wear jerseys and caps to highlight their Taiwanese identity among the many international attendees.
The number “113” printed on the jersey represented the group’s birthday wish for the Dalai Lama to live to 113 years of age — a reference to a prediction he made in 2019.
Seperately, in a prerecorded video address to a gathering of senior Tibetan religious leaders in Dharamsala on Wednesday last week, the Dalai Lama affirmed that “the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue.”
He said that only the Gaden Phodrang Trust — the official organization representing his spiritual office — has the sole authority to recognize his future reincarnation.
“No one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” he said.
The Dalai Lama had said in 2011 that at about the age of 90, he would consult with the high lamas of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan public to determine whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue.
His recent statement directly challenges Beijing’s claim that it holds the right to approve or reject any future Dalai Lama. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) reiterated this position following the announcement, saying that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must comply with Chinese laws and occur within China’s borders.
Mao’s comments were in response to remarks in the Dalai Lama’s memoir, Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle With China for My Land and My People (為無聲者發聲：為我的家鄉和人民與中國抗爭七十餘年), published in March, in which he said that his next reincarnation would be in the “free world,” outside of China.
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