To extract the Dalai Lama from his golf buggy you need three monks, one for each arm and a third to grasp his waist and hoist him out of his seat. The 88-year-old exiled spiritual ruler of Tibet is frail and that suggests a succession crisis on the Himalayan horizon involving a strange, mystical process in and around the land of the snow. He has worked his way through 15 US presidents but many doubt he will see a 16th.
This is more than a piece of quaint folklore and arcane ritual. The Dalai Lama’s health has geopolitical consequences. It has long been the case that the three T’s – Taiwan, Tiananmen Square and Tibet – comprised the three great unmentionables in Chinese politics. And
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