Dalai Lama steps down as Tibetan leader
The Dalai Lama has announced he is stepping down as political leader of the Tibetan government in exile. He says the time has come for his replacement by a "freely elected" leader. The Dalai Lama, whose more significant role is as the movement's spiritual leader, said he would seek an amendment allowing him to resign his political office when the exiled Tibetan parliament meets next week. "My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility," he said in an address in Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile in northern India. "It is to benefit Tibetans in the long run. It is not because I feel disheartened." The Dalai Lama was 15 when he was appointed head of state in 1950 after Chinese troops moved into Tibet. He fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.