So, there will be a Dalai Lama even after the incumbent dies. Ending years of speculation, the Dalai Lama announced this week that heeding appeals from millions of Tibetans he has come around to the view that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue. A successor will be found.

There was a subtext to the announcement. The Chinese who control Tibet and routinely abuse the Dalai Lama are eager to either abolish the institution or to appoint a puppet as the next Dalai Lama. In the circumstances, the Dalai Lama may have had no choice but to declare that the post would outlive him and that the search for his successor would be conducted by monks who were not under the influence of the Chinese government. Also read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Why we must hold back judgment on the Air India crash

But this may not have been what the Dalai Lama really wanted. Twenty years ago, when I interviewed him for the HT he said that he could well be the last Dalai Lama. The world was changing and the concept of the Dalai Lama as a divinely selected monk who functioned as a sort of king had begun to seem out of date. He believed that he should be succeeded by a democratic leader elected by Tibetans. (In this case Tibetans in exile;........

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