A top Tibetan official said yesterday that the Dalai Lama's decision to give up his political power would have only limited effects on the region, adding that the Tibetan spiritual leader's continued negotiations with China would not be affected by his retirement from the government-in-exile.
In the Chinese government's first high-level comments since the Dalai Lama announced his retirement in March as head of the Dharamsala-based government, Tibetan chairman, or governor, Padma Choling said it would be good for Tibet if the Dalai Lama concentrated on religious affairs.
'I dare say that it will surely have some effect and cannot say it has no effect,' he said when asked what the Dalai Lama's political exit would mean for Tibet's social stability. But he said such effects were comparable to 'a wave in a swimming pool'.
'If the Dalai Lama really has retired as he says he has, if he stops his separatist activities, stops disrupting the stability of Tibet and really concentrates on Buddhism, then this will be good for Tibet,' he said.
'Whether he retires or not, the Dalai Lama is not allowed to sabotage the happy lives of the Tibetans,' Choling, Tibet's highest-ranking official, said on the eve of the 60th anniversary of communist rule over the Tibetan region, officially known as the 'peaceful liberation of Tibet'.
The Dalai Lama recently turned over his political authority to Lobsang Sangay, a 43-year-old Harvard academic elected in April.