Tibetan exiles get new PM in Dalai Lama's old role

Harvard legal scholar Lobsang Sangay will be the next prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, officials announced Wednesday, a role that will see him take over political leadership from the Dalai Lama.

The 75-year-old Dalai Lama, who is worshipped as a near deity by many of his followers, has long said he wanted to give up his political role while remaining the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. The shift to a more powerful elected leader is widely seen as a way to prepare for the Dalai Lama's eventual death. However, given how much Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama, it's unclear how much power the new prime minister will actually exert.

While the Dalai Lama is believed to be in fairly good health, China's continued heavy-handed rule over Tibet has made the succession question all important within the Tibetan community.

Many observers believe there eventually will be rival Dalai Lamas - one appointed by Beijing, which rules Tibet, and one by senior monks loyal to the current Dalai Lama.

The political change, yet to be written into the community's constitution, reverses centuries of tradition in which the top monk also guided the Tibetan government.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate, has said that he believes leaders should be elected, and has suggested that negotiations with Beijing - which has vilified him for his vocal resistance to China's rule over Tibet - would be less complicated under another Tibetan figurehead.

The message "is that the Tibetan struggle is clearly a Tibetan people's struggle," government spokesman Thupten Samphel said. "This is a wake-up call for China."

Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School with extensive experience in international law and conflict resolution, won the election with 55 percent of the votes cast by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world, chief election commissioner Jamphel Choesang said in the north Indian town of Dharmsala, where the exile government is based.

Voters were delighted with the news Wednesday, saying they felt Sangay was the right man for the job.

"The Dalai Lama wants young Tibetans to take on leadership," said 28-year-old Lobsang Jinpa, who works in a photo lab in Dharmsala. "Even if (Sangay) makes mistakes, the Dalai Lama is there to guide him."

Despite more than a half-century in exile, the Dalai Lama is still revered by most Tibetans as their traditional king. He is the 14th person to hold the title in a tradition stretching back 500 years, with each Dalai Lama chosen as a child by senior monks through a series of mystical signs. Each is believed to be the reincarnation of his predecessor.

The Dalai Lama's power and influence go far beyond the exile constitution, which will make it almost impossible for the new prime minister to achieve very much without the spiritual leader's backing.

The current Dalai Lama has indicated his successor would come from the exile community, and could even be a girl. Beijing, though, insists the reincarnation must be found in China's Tibetan areas, giving the Communist authorities immense power over who is chosen.

Internet cafe clerk Dawa Tsering, 28, said Sangay would "lead us not by tradition but by modern education.

"He is also a lawyer, so his experience and education will be a good weapon to fight for the Tibetan cause," he said.

Sangay has said he would move to Dharmsala from Boston if he won the election. It was not immediately clear when he would take office.

He has said the Dalai Lama's decision to abdicate political power means the Tibetans will be able to fight China on two fronts.

"On one side we'll have the Dalai Lama, who has historical legitimacy and global popularity," he told The Associated Press in a March interview. "And on the second, we have a democratic government functioning in exile. We are showing China that if Tibetans are allowed to choose, they are capable of forming a stable democratic government."

Successive rounds of talks between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama have made no apparent progress toward bringing the sides together. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, despite his claims to be working only for more autonomy under Chinese rule.

The exiled Tibetan community in Dharmsala said it would not celebrate Wednesday's election results as it was protesting a Chinese crackdown on a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Himalayan foothills of China's western Sichuan province. The Kirti monastery was forcibly shut down after a police raid aimed at moving 300 monks to an unknown location left two villagers dead.

China occupied Tibet in 1950 and claims the region has been part of its territory for centuries, although many Tibetans, who are linguistically and ethnically distinct, say they were effectively independent.

Tibetans fear they are being marginalized economically by Chinese and that their religion - the core of Tibetan culture - is under threat from restrictions imposed by the authoritarian government.

The outgoing prime minister said Sangay would have a host of new responsibilities with the Dalai Lama relinquishing his political duties.

"Our democracy is mature enough to handle this change. It's a significant change from old to new, from a monk to a lay person, from older to young, and from traditional to modern," said Prime Minister Sambhong Rinpoche, who is mandated to serve until August but may step down early. The new parliament-in-exile will take its oath of office May 30 in Dharmsala.