DHARMSALA, India — The Dalai Lama said today that he will give up his political role in Tibet’s government-in-exile, shifting that power to an elected representative.
The Tibetan spiritual leader, speaking on the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese control, said the time has come “to devolve my formal authority to the elected leader.”
He has long insisted that he wants the exile government, based in this Indian hill town, to have more power. But his speech today gave a formal timeframe to that transition, saying he would soon be proposing amendments to the exile constitution to bring about the changes. The exile parliament is set to begin its next session this month.
Just how much change will come, though, is unclear. The Dalai Lama’s political role is largely ceremonial — an elected prime minister is the formal leader of the exile government — but the Dalai Lama’s status overshadows everyone else in the movement.
