It is not easy for any modern secularist country to deal with a faith-based institution that is far older than itself and refuses to be domesticated. Imagine a state that is professedly communist; tolerates religious beliefs for ordinary citizens, but not for the members of the dominant ruling party; and has within its territory a deeply religious ethno-nationalist people who find most of their traditional leaders in exile accused of separatism. Yes, that state is the People's Republic of China; the people concerned are Tibetans; and the institution is that of the Dalai Lama.