Dharamsala, Nov 26 : Tibetans-living-in-exile in Dharamsala, have supported the Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama's recent announcement suggesting that he might appoint a successor before his death instead of relying on reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, had told a Japanese newspaper during a visit to Tokyo that Tibetans would not accept a successor who was selected by China after his death.

The Chinese government is wary of the present Dalai Lama since the time when he fled to Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The selection of lamas has since become a sore point between the Tibetans and the Chinese authorities.

Supporting the decision taken by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Sam Dong Rimpoche said, "For quite some time, his holiness was thinking in these terms, because of the PRC's (People's Republic of China) attitude about the recognition of reincarnations."

"To keep this tradition of Dalai Lama intact, unpolluted, the present Dalai Lama must have taken an appropriate decision without giving a chance to PRC authorities to interfere in the recognition of Dalai Lama," he added.

In 1995, the Dalai Lama and Chinese authorities chose rival reincarnations of the 10th Panchen Lama, who had died in 1989. The 6-year-old anointed by the Dalai Lama disappeared from public view, and is thought to have lived under house arrest ever since.

Government regulations that came into force on September 1 make reincarnations of "living Buddhas" in Tibet who fail to get Chinese government approval illegal and invalid. (ANI)