The "open door" to a return of the Dalai Lama, says Padma Choling, appointed by the president of Beijing's Tibet Autonomous Region. "If he wishes to return the door to China is always open," he said Thursday, Mr. Choling, delivering the first comment by a senior official from the Dalai Lama announced abandon his political role as head of movement of Tibetans in exile, while retaining his role as spiritual leader.
"If the Dalai Lama really retires as he said, if it stops its separatist activities, he stops to disrupt Tibet's stability and it really focuses on Buddhism, then it will be positive for Tibet, "he added. "The crucial point is whether it really gives up Tibet independence," said Mr. Choling.
The Dalai Lama has abandoned his original demands for independence for his homeland and is now talk of a "broad autonomy". But Beijing accuses him of advocating separatism and regularly asked to permanently abandon any aspirations to independence. Last month, Tibetan exiles elected their new prime minister, Lobsang Sangay, a lawyer of 43 years who will be tasked to assume the political role embodied for decades by the Dalai Lama.
After a failed uprising against the Chinese presence in Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama took refuge in Dharamsala, India, where the sitting government and the Tibetan Parliament in exile. China, which claims to have "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951, still controls more closely this Autonomous Region and neighboring Tibetan-populated provinces since the anti-Chinese riots of 2008.
Tibetans complain of relentless repression by Chinese authorities. 
"If the Dalai Lama really retires as he said, if it stops its separatist activities, he stops to disrupt Tibet's stability and it really focuses on Buddhism, then it will be positive for Tibet, "he added. "The crucial point is whether it really gives up Tibet independence," said Mr. Choling.
The Dalai Lama has abandoned his original demands for independence for his homeland and is now talk of a "broad autonomy". But Beijing accuses him of advocating separatism and regularly asked to permanently abandon any aspirations to independence. Last month, Tibetan exiles elected their new prime minister, Lobsang Sangay, a lawyer of 43 years who will be tasked to assume the political role embodied for decades by the Dalai Lama.
After a failed uprising against the Chinese presence in Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama took refuge in Dharamsala, India, where the sitting government and the Tibetan Parliament in exile. China, which claims to have "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951, still controls more closely this Autonomous Region and neighboring Tibetan-populated provinces since the anti-Chinese riots of 2008.
Tibetans complain of relentless repression by Chinese authorities.
No comments:
Post a Comment