-By Krishna N. Das, Reuters

DHARAMSHALA, India, July 2 (Reuters) – The elderly Dalai Lama assured followers on Wednesday that upon his death he would be reincarnated as the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and spelt out a succession process that sets up a renewed clash with China.

The eagerly awaited statement, made days before the frail Nobel peace laureate turns 90, put to rest speculation, started by the Dalai Lama himself, that he may be the last of Tibet’s spiritual leaders, ending a line that stretches back centuries.

Speaking during a week of celebrations in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala to mark his birthday, the Dalai Lama said a non-profit institution he has set up will have sole authority to identify his reincarnation, countering China’s insistence that it will choose his successor.

Beijing reiterated on Wednesday that it had to approve the reincarnation and that it had to be done in China through a centuries-old ritual. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said it would continue calling on China to cease interference in the succession and respect freedom of religion.

Beijing views the Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, as a separatist. The Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. In previous years, he had also said it was possible that there might be no successor at all.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Dalai Lama said in a video message, setting off claps and cheers from more than 100 monks in maroon robes who had gathered in a library in Dharamshala.

The event was attended by journalists from around the world and an audience of long-time supporters including Hollywood star Richard Gere, sitting in a hall whose walls displayed ornate paintings of the Buddha and photographs of the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama added that the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the non-profit organisation he set up to maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama, has sole authority to recognise his reincarnation in consultation with the heads of Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

“They should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition … no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” he said. Click here to read more.