DHARAMSHALA – The Dalai Lama announced on Thursday he would step down as political head of Tibet’s exiled government, but continue to push the Tibetan cause in his key role as its spiritual figurehead. In a speech on the anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama said he would seek an amendment allowing him to resign his political office when the exiled Tibetan parliament meets next week.
“As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power,” he said in Dharamshala, the seat of Tibet’s government-in-exile in northern India. “Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect.” China, which brands the 75-year-old Nobel peace laureate a “splittist” bent on Tibetan independence, responded by accusing him of playing “tricks” to deceive the international community.
While the Dalai Lama will retain the more significant role of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the move marks a watershed in the history of the Tibetan movement and its long and largely fruitless struggle against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama was just 15 when he was appointed “head of state” in 1950 after Chinese troops moved into Tibet. He fled his homeland in 1959 after the unsuccessful uprising.
His temporal duties are largely ceremonial and the Dalai Lama had already pronounced himself “semi-retired” following the first direct election in 2001 of a prime minister as the formal head of the exiled government.
The Dalai Lama’s remaining political power is now likely to be devolved to the prime minister, boosting the role’s profile.
