DHARAMSALA, May 27 — Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama prayed as the leader of the elected government of Tibetans in exile was sworn in for a second term today.
The India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) — condemned by China as “nothing but a separatist political group” — is a key institution for the exiles, especially after the Dalai Lama handed over political power in 2011.
Elections took place in February and April in 27 countries — but not China.
The government’s “sikyong”, or leader, Penpa Tsering, was elected for a second term, after taking 61 per cent in the preliminary round — a high enough threshold to win outright.
Tsering, like the government, does not seek full independence for Tibet, in line with the Dalai Lama’s long-standing “Middle Way” policy seeking autonomy.
He took the oath of office in front of justice officials, and watched by the Dalai Lama, a live broadcast by CTA showed.
Groups of traditional dancers performed, as crowds including red robed monks and nuns watched the ceremony in India’s northern hilltown of Dharamshala.
The 91,000 registered voters include Buddhist monks in the high Himalayas, political exiles in South Asia’s megacities and refugees in Australia, Europe and North America.
The five-year parliament, which sits twice a year, has 45 members from across the world: 30 representing three traditional provinces, 10 representing five religious traditions and five representing the diaspora.
It functions as a representative body for an estimated 150,000 Tibetans living in exile worldwide.
Exiled voters represent only a fraction of ethnic Tibetans — whom the CTA estimates at six million worldwide, compared with more than seven million China counted in its 2020 census.
Beijing, which in 1950 sent troops to the vast high-altitude plateau it describes as an integral part of China, calls the exiled government an “illegal organisation that completely violates the Chinese constitution and laws”.
The 90-year-old Dalai Lama, based in India since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959, insists he has many more years to live.
But supporters of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate are acutely aware that self-declared atheist and Communist China said last year that it must approve the Buddhist leader’s eventual successor.
The Dalai Lama says only his India-based office has that right.
Tibetan Buddhists believe he is the 14th reincarnation of a spiritual leader first born in 1391. — AFP
Dalai Lama attends swearing-in of Tibetan exile government leader in Dharamshala
