The current Dalai Lama was identified in 1936 when, aged two, he passed a test by pointing to objects that had belonged to the post’s previous occupier.

He was hailed as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, a role that stretches back more than 600 years.

“One constant in everybody’s life has been the presence of the Dalai Lama,” said Jinpa, who fled Tibet with his parents as a baby, around the same time the Dalai Lama escaped.

If there is to be a 15th, the Dalai Lama has said he will “leave clear written instructions” on what will happen after his death.

Jinpa, who trained as a monk before completing his doctorate at the University of Cambridge, said that a foundational principle of Buddhism was the contemplation of impermanence.

“Anything that comes into being will come to an end,” he said. “Where there is birth, there will be death.”

But he said the Dalai Lama—who has said he wants to live until he is 113 -- also wants followers to confront a future, someday, without him.

“The idea of a world without him is almost unthinkable,” Jinpa said. “But that will happen, and His Holiness has himself been very explicit in making sure that people are thinking about it.”