Halfway home is far from a China deal

MADRAS, India -- The Dalai Lama is still the leader of Tibet. He may be just a figurehead, but China, which annexed Tibet in 1959 and drove the Dalai Lama and his followers into India, knows that only this monk can convince his people to reconcile to Beijing's control over Lhasa.

But the Dalai Lama is 69, and China understands that the stakes are getting higher. His death would leave a void among the Tibetans, who could then rise in a bloody revolt.

It also appears that there may not be another Dalai Lama. The current one, the 14th -- who now lives in the Indian town of Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile -- does not wish, in any case, to be reborn.