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Tibetan Buddhism

Who picks the next Dalai Lama? In 2025, the current one gave his answer. China gave a different one. This dispute sits on top of a much older tradition: Tibetan Buddhism’s four schools, and its unusual system of reincarnating teachers.

MCQ Questions

Tibetan Buddhism

The Four Schools, Side by Side

Each grew from the same Vajrayana root, but split on lineage, transmission, and practice.

Nyingma

8th century

Oldest school. The “ancient translation school,” centred on Dzogchen practice.

Kagyu

Oral Lineage

The “Ear-Whispered Lineage.” Teachings pass orally, teacher to student.

Sakya

Founded 1073

Founded by Khön Könchok Gyalpo. Known for the Lamdre teaching.

Gelug

Newest, Largest

The Dalai Lama’s own school, and Tibetan Buddhism’s biggest today.

Live tension: in July 2025, the Dalai Lama said only his own Gaden Phodrang Trust can name his successor. China rejects this, insisting on its own approval process.

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📑 Contents

1Must Know
2Good to Know
3Test Yourself
4Great to Know
5Current Affairs

Must Know

Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Vajrayana Buddhism.
It blends Mahayana ideas, like the bodhisattva path, with tantric practices.
Those tantric practices include mantra recitation and deity visualization.
Tibetan Buddhism has four main schools: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug.
Nyingma is the oldest school, founded in the 8th century.
It is called the “ancient translation school,” and it centres on Dzogchen practice.
Kagyu passes its teachings orally, earning it the name the “Ear-Whispered Lineage.”
Sakya was founded in 1073 by Khön Könchok Gyalpo, known for its Lamdre teaching.
Gelug is the newest and largest of the four schools.
The Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelug school.

Good to Know

Tibetan Buddhism has a unique system for succession: the tulku, or reincarnating lama.
This formal system of recognising reincarnations traces back to the 13th century.
The Dalai Lama lineage is the most famous tulku lineage.
The current, 14th Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, born in 1935.
He was identified as the 13th Dalai Lama’s reincarnation at just age 2.
On 17 March 1959, he fled Tibet on foot and horseback, over the Himalayas.
He reached India on 31 March 1959, escaping a Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
In 1960, he established a Tibetan government-in-exile at Dharamshala, in Himachal Pradesh.
In 2011, he gave up his own political power, ending 369 years of tradition.
That power passed to the Central Tibetan Administration, a democratically elected body.
The Central Tibetan Administration is still based in Dharamshala today.

Test Yourself

Great to Know

The tulku system was never designed with geopolitics in mind, but it invites exactly that.
Whoever recognises the “true” reincarnation gains real religious and political authority.
The Karmapa Lama dispute shows this same pattern playing out, separately from the Dalai Lama’s own succession.
Both cases show how a religious tradition can become a live diplomatic flashpoint, once a powerful state has a stake in the outcome.

Current Affairs

On 2 July 2025, the 14th Dalai Lama stated that the Gaden Phodrang Trust alone has authority to recognise his reincarnation. (Source: Office of the Dalai Lama)
China’s government rejected this. It insists any successor must be approved using the “golden urn” method, a Qing-era selection process it legally mandated in 2007. (Source: TIME)
As of mid-2026, this succession question remains unresolved, and is an active point of India-China-Tibet tension. (Source: The Diplomat)

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