His Holiness the Dalai Lama used to be a political leader of Tibet when he was in Tibet but left as a young age. He was leader of the “government in exile” but has resigned all his political roles and responsibilities now. He continues as a spiritual leader. However, there are many different Tibetan spiritual leaders. Also the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism all have heads of the school, though for Nyingmapa school this was a new role that was created in exile for administrative purposes as it didn’t have a single head of the school in Tibet. There is nobody with a role corresponding to the Christian Pope in Tibetan Buddhism.

The head of the Gelugpa school is Ganden Tripa

His Holiness The Dalai Lama (left) and Ganden Tripa (right)

The head of the Karmapa school is Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje, the seventeenth Karmapa

Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje on the right, with the Dalai Lama The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa

The head of the Sakya school is Sakya Trizin

Sakya Trizin, head of the Sakya school, on the left ‎

The Nyingmapa school didn’t have a head in Tibet and the position of the “Supreme Head” of the Nyingmapas was established in exile for administrative purposes. Nyingma. I haven’t found out who the current supreme head is.

The previous one from 2012 until he died in 2015 is Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche

Head of Nyingma School Meets His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The oldest spiritual tradition in Tibet is the Bon tradition They say that their founder is “Buddha Shenrab. He is said to have been born in the mythical land of Olmo Lung Ring, whose exact location remains something of a mystery. “ They say that their teachings date back to a Buddha who lived before Buddha Shakyamuni. The Dalai Lama has “stressed the importance of preserving the Bön tradition, as representing the indigenous source of Tibetan culture, and acknowledging the major role it has had in shaping Tibet's unique identity.”

There are only a few Bon remaining outside of Tibet, though it had more than three hundred monasteries in Tibet before the Chinese invasion. Their senior teacher is Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche - Tibetan Bön

Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, senior teacher of the Bon religion in exile, with his Holiness the Dalai Lama

None of these are leaders in the sense of a Pope.

Since the Dalai Lamas follow a line of reincarnation then there’s always a gap between the death of the previous Dalai Lama and the coming of age of the next Dalai Lama, as he has to take birth and then grow up to adulthood.

Traditionally the Dalai Lama is linked with the Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lamas help train the young Dalai Lamas and the Dalai Lamas help train the young Panchen Lamas. Panchen Lama

But the Panchen Lama chosen by our current Dalai Lama and his delegation in Tibet disappeared from public view aged six. This is him as he was soon before he disappeared:

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

He was taken into custody by the Chinese aged 6, allegedly to protect him, along with his parents, making him the world’s youngest political prisoner at the time. He should now be 27 (as of spring 2017). The Chinese say that he is in good health and happy, but have not let anyone confirm that he is alive and well, and he has now been missing for over 21 years, in this sense that the Chinese have not permitted any contact with anyone even to confirm that he is still alive.

At the time that he disappeared, the Chinese chose their own version of the Panchen Lama which the Dalai Lama doesn’t recognize.

When the Dalai Lama dies, we don’t know what happens next. Normally the Dalai Lama would leave instructions to help find his successor.

But our current Dalai Lama has said that he doesn’t know yet if he will do this. If he does, he says he will not take rebirth in China. I think that is understandable considering what happened to the Panchen Lama.

A Dalai Lama of course gives his instructions to help find his successor before he dies, and so, before his successor is born and indeed before he is conceived. Also his successor will typically have no connection at all with the previous Dalai Lama - the current Dalai Lama was a son of a small subsistence farmer in a remote hamlet in Tibet. This system only makes sense really if you believe in reincarnation and the ability of the Dalai Lama to direct his next rebirth.

He may be our last Dalai Lama. That doesn’t mean that it is his last re-incarnation. It means that we would no longer have a system in place to locate Dalai Lamas. There would no longer be anyone who is either identified by anyone else as the Dalai Lama, or self identifies as the Dalai Lama.

But Tibetan Buddhism will continue just fine.