The Dalai Lama has announced he will retire from political life within days.
In a speech posted on the internet and delivered in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamasala, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader said he would ask the Tibetan parliament in exile to make the necessary constitutional changes to relieve him of his “formal authority” as head of the Tibetan community outside China.
The assembly, which meets early next week, is expected to approve his request. Though long-anticipated, the move away from the limelight by one of the world’s best known political figures signals a dramatic change.
Analysts and supporters have described the decision of the Dalai Lama, whose office traditionally combines spiritual and temporal roles, as historic.
Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet, said the decision meant that “at a perilous moment in the history of Tibet” the Dalai Lama was “expressing his faith in the Tibetan people”.
The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has progressively distanced himself from a direct political role and expressed a desire to live as a simple monk.
“As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need…