Weeks before the Dalai Lama ruled out China's role in choosing his successor, President Xi Jinping met a Tibetan Buddhist monk installed three decades ago by Beijing as the faith's No. 2 leader, the Panchen Lama.

The Dalai Lama has announced that he intends to reincarnate, paving the way for a successor to take on a mantle stretching back 500 years after his death

It was a Great Escape in 1959 from Lhasa's Norbulingka Palace, the summer seat of the Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism. Then just 23, the Dalai Lama had no option but to flee Tibet after it became clear that an invitation to a dance event was communist China's bid to imprison him.