The Dalai Lama said Wednesday there will be a successor after his death. But China insists that it alone has the authority to approve the next religious leader.

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.

At Mongolia's largest monastery, worshippers pray alongside pictures of the Dalai Lama, whose 90th birthday on Sunday has raised fresh questions about the future of the 600-year-old Tibetan spiritual institution.