Hundreds of followers of the Dalai Lama have gathered for the 90th birthday of the Tibetan Spiritual Leader, who are deported in northern India, amid growing expectations that he can give a clue about his last successor.

The Dalai Lama is due to issuing a video message and a statement on Wednesday, his office has told the BBC, although there is no clarity on what he would say.

The Dalai Lama fled from across the border in 1959 after failing against Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959.

He established a government in the Northern Indian hill city of Dharamsala and has been seen as an alternative source of power for those who are angry with Beijing’s tight control of Tibet.

The milestone birthday on Sunday will be held before the three-day 15 Tibetan religious conference starting on Wednesday morning. The ceremony started on Monday – Dalai Lama’s birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar.

The ceremony will be attended by over 7,000 guests, including several Indian ministers. On Monday, the pictures were shown to Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long -time follower in the pictures.

The Dalai Lama, who earlier said that he would release details about his succession around his 90th birthday, told a gathering on Monday that “there would be a framework of some kind that we can talk about the continuity of the organization of Dalai Lamas”. He was not detailed.

In the past, or not the Tibetan Buddhist Nobel Peace Prize winner is torn between the 600 -year -old institution with the 600 -year -old institution. A few years ago, he said that his successor could be a girl, or that there could be no successor.

But in recent years, he has also said that if there is widespread support among the Tibetans for the post – which is there – it will continue and his office will choose a successor.

He has always stressed that his successor will be born outside China, something that has angered Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle path” to solve the position of Tibet – real self -governance within China – Beijing considers it as a separatist. It says that the standard of living people’s living in Tibet has greatly improved its rule.

Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan Parliament, said he does not expect a “clear-cut process” this week “.

“I think everyone is apprehending any revelation from purity about their rebirth. But I don’t expect a very specific type of revelation,” he told the BBC.

The current Dalai Lama, he said, “There is a binding and integrated force for the Tibetan movement” and some Tibetans feel that someone should be identified soon as his successor because they worry that they worry that there may be any impact on the community and the movement is moving forward.

“The Dalai Lama Institute is very important for the Tibetan conflict. It is a symbol of Tibetan identity and also a beach of our spiritual refuge. It will continue. I think there will be a vacuum, but we have to continue, we have no option,” he said.

“We have very big shoes to fill, but we have to fill them, right? I think many people will have to join that role, a person will not be enough.”

However, experts say that if he announces a successor, China also expects to name its Dalai Lama.

Dibesh Anand, a professor of international relations at Westminster University, told the BBC, “China will argue that only the Communist Party of China located in Beijing has the right to find the rebirth of the Dalai Lama.”

“After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own protegs, which will identify a little boy as the next Dalai Lama and apply it. Certainly, most of the Tibetans are going to reject it and most of the people in the world are going to make fun of it.

Mr. Outsang says that “despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet, Beijing is” completely failed “.

A Dalai Lama chosen by China, he says, “Not only the Tibetans, but the world will not be recognized, but the world will not accept it because China does not have legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama”.

“We are worried, but we know that despite our concern, China will come with its own Dalai Lama, we will call it Chinese-beloved Dalai Lama. I am not worried that the Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or Buddhist world.”

Tibetan Buddhists believe that their senior monks are rebuilt and a Dalai Lama is chosen by Buddhist authorities if they are confident that they are choosing the soul of their predecessor.

Current – 14th – Dalai Lama was born on 6 July 1935 in a small Tibetan village of a peasant family and was named Lamo Dhondub. When he was two years old, a discovery party of Buddhist authorities recognized him as a rebirth of 13 previous Dalai Lamas.

According to his official biography, the clinning evidence came when the authorities showed him several assets which belonged to his predecessor. The child correctly identified the objects related to the 13th Dalai Lama, “This is mine. This is mine”.

Before the age of four, he was educated in a Tibetan monastery and was a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.

But in 1950, when he was 15, the newly installed Communist Government soldiers marched in Tibet. A year later, China signed a 17 -digit agreement to legalize Tibet’s incorporation in China.

In 1959, a Tibetan rebellion, demanding the end of the Chinese rule, was crushed and thousands of protesters died.

The Dalai Lama fled to India on foot with 10,000 followers and settled in Dharmasala, from there to the government-in-exclusion. In 2011, he played his political role, but remains the top spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

Some of them who ran away with him still dream of going to Tibet’s house.

“I believe that I will return to Tibet. If I am not, my young generations will definitely return,” said 84 -year -old Lobsang Chedon, who attended Monday’s celebrations.

Chaden’s daughter and grandson were all born – and spent their entire life in India. Nevertheless, his 15 -year -old grandson Nagang Lahundup feels deeply connected to his ancestral motherland.

He is listening to stories about Tibet as he was a child and says he would consider visiting Tibet, even if it is under Chinese rule.

“But if it was free from Chinese invasion, I would be more than being happy to go back to Tibet.”