The Dalai Lama is of course not chosen, but found. And the process of finding one is steeped in mysticism and occult practices. There are oracles and prophesies, signs and visions, and search parties traditionally fanned out to distant places, and carried out tests to see if a candidate could remember objects from his past life. Clues can be found in which direction the face of a deceased Dalai Lama is turned to, or, if the body is cremated, in the direction of the smoke. After the 13th Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso, died, when his body was being mummified, it is said, his head was discovered to have turned, from facing south to the northeast, which was interpreted as sign of the direction where the new incarnation was born. Dreams are another important guide. And those involved in finding the next Dalai Lama often consult an oracle lake, Lhamo La-Tso in central Tibet.

In the case of the current Dalai Lama, when the Regent of Tibet then, himself a senior lama, looked into the sacred waters of Lhamo La-Tso, the Tibetan letters Ah, Ka and Ma, followed by the image of a three-storied monastery with a turquoise and gold roof and a path running from it to a hill, and finally, a small house with strangely shaped guttering, is believed to have floated into view. These visions guided the search party, a group of monks disguised as servants, to a specific house close to Kumbum Monastery in the northeastern Tibetan province of Amdo, where they found a two-year-old Lhamo Thondup. The boy is believed to have addressed the group's leader by name, and picked out all the artefacts that had belonged to the previous Dalai Lama, uttering the words, "It's mine, it's mine."

When the time comes, such a process, many assume, will be followed in the search of the next Dalai Lama too, since the current Dalai Lama's statement mentions that "They [the Gaden Phodrang Trust] should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition." But for the first time, this ancient tradition will have to be carried out in a new land. A new Dalai Lama will have to be found away from home, adapting ancient tradition and mystic practices to a new geographic and political reality. Access to sacred spaces like the oracular lake Lhamo La-Tso may become difficult, but many believe this could be managed with the help of Tibetans inside Tibet.

WHEN THE DALAI LAMA made his statement, what would have been unexpected was if the Dalai Lamahad opted for 'emanation', where he would have chosen the next Dalai Lama in his own lifetime, something he had mentioned in 2011. "But the Dalai Lama hasn't spoken about this since that statement. So it did appear that he wasn't going to go that route," says Kate Saunders, an analyst and writer specialising on Tibet who leads Turquoise Roof, a Tibet research network.

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