The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader said the choice of a successor should be made according to traditional practices and that lamas and monks would conduct the search, setting up a clash with Beijing’s communist rulers.

Even living Buddhas aren’t above the law in China. A new book written by the Dalai Lama, the highest authority in Tibetan Buddhism and considered the manifestation of bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, reveals that his next incarnation will be born in the “free world,