FACTBOX | What is the trust that will identify the Dalai Lama’s successor?

The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday his Gaden Phodrang Trust would have the sole authority to recognise his future reincarnation, rejecting any role for China in choosing who succeeds him as the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists.

The non-profit was registered in 2011 in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama is based. Its members include the Dalai Lama, senior monk Samdhong Rinpoche and close aides who work in the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamshala.

The Dalai Lama heads the trust and its "alternate chairperson", or second highest official, is Rinpoche, who Tibetans believe to be the reincarnation of a previous high monk. All members must be based in India.

The Dalai Lama and many other Tibetans fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He has since called for a "middle-way approach" that does not seek Tibet's independence from China but demands autonomy for Tibetans to protect and preserve their culture, religion and national identity.

The trust's main job is to support the Dalai Lama's spiritual and humanitarian work.

The Dalai Lama said in an address to a religious conference on Wednesday that members of the trust should consult the heads of Tibetan Buddhist traditions and other senior religious figures to "carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition".

In 2011 he said he would leave "clear written instructions about this", but Rinpoche said on Wednesday the Dalai Lama had not yet done so because he was in good health and had promised to live for many more years.

The Dalai Lama will celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6. He told Reuters in December he could live until he is 110.

There is another Gaden Phodrang non-profit in the Swiss city of Zurich. It also carries out projects on behalf of the Dalai Lama, is headed by the Dalai Lama and has his aides as its members. Its job is to "maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama with regard to the religious and spiritual duties of the Dalai Lama", it says on its website.

The Dalai Lama Trust is a charitable wing of the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamshala.

Reuters