Tibetan Parlimentary & Policy Research Centre

By Manjeet Sehgal Warrior

DHARAMSHALA, India, 17 December 2008 (The Telegraph)

Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today said the movement he spearheaded for nearly five decades needed a “political front” if the vexed Tibetan issue was to be solved.

The Nobel Peace Laureate said the Tibetan issue could no longer be “solved on a religious front.” Only a “strong political front”, he added, can find a solution to the problem.

“The future course of the Tibetan movement will be decided by the elected government under Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche .”

The future course of the Tibetan movement will be decided by the elected government under Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche.

The comment came three weeks after a conclave of exiled Tibetans declared they would be forced to demand full independence if no concrete results emerged.

The 73-year-old monk also hinted at his retirement but did not announce a date for stepping down. “I am in a semi-retirement stage and have no political powers. I had already delegated my political powers to the de facto Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Samdhong Rinpoche is now my boss.”

The government-in-exile, however, said the Dalai Lama was not retiring. “His holiness the Dalai Lama has been misquoted again by a section of the media. He is not retiring yet and has just said that he is in a semi-retirement stage,” spokesperson Thubten Samphel said. “There is nothing new.”