By Laurie Chen and Krishna N. Das BEIJING/DHARAMSHALA, India (Reuters) -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.

Beijing has spoken loud and clear: the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will be in China, and approved by the Chinese Communist Party. Tibet, however, has been silent. "That's just the way it is," the monk told us. "That's the reality."

While the world debates the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, the fate of the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s second-most important figure, stands as a chilling precedent of China’s plan. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima,