The Dalai Lama held out the possibility on Thursday that an upcoming change in China’s leadership offered the chance of a new approach in Tibet.
“The new leadership must use common sense and a more holistic view to serve long term-interest. There is no other way,” the spiritual leader said in an interview with the BBC.
“Just using force, censorship and to remain a closed society is almost like suicide. Judging that way, I feel there is possibility of a real chance to change.”
The Tibetans’ exiled political leadership said earlier this week that the region had been turned into a giant prison amid a spate of self-immolations to protest Chinese rule.
Exiles are holding a four-day general meeting in their base in Dharamsala in northern India, the first such gathering since the Dalai Lama formally withdrew last year from political duties to focus on his religious obligations.
Xi Jinping, who is expected to be named as China’s president in an imminent leadership change in Beijing, has set off a ripple of speculation that he may bring about a change of policy towards Tibet.