On a rainy Thursday morning in July, many thousands of people gathered at the Namgyal monastery in McLeod Ganj, northern India, to mark the 14th Dalai Lama’s 88th birthday.
The Tibetan spiritual leader has said he plans to live beyond the age of 113, and will address the matter of his reincarnation — including whether he is reincarnated at all — in two years’ time, when he is 90.