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.

The 14th Dalai Lama turns 90 on Sunday and is expected to give his clearest signal yet on how his reincarnation will be determined at the event in Dharamshala, India, where the Dalai Lama has lived since fleeing Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.