Last month, the Dalai Lama made a surprise announcement that he would be giving up his position as political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile and make way for a democratically-elected leader. That leader has now been elected: Lobsang Sangay, a 42-year-old Harvard academic. From BBC:
Following elections in March, Mr Sangay emerged as the surprise front-runner to become Kalon Tripa – a position often referred to as “prime minister” of a “Tibetan government-in-exile” headed by the Dalai Lama.
But the new Kalon Tripa is expected to have to shoulder much of the authority previously borne by the Dalai Lama, who, at the age of 75, has announced he is to give up his political role.
He will have to lead a global movement that campaigns for Tibetan rights and freedoms under Chinese rule. He’ll also manage the ramshackle “government-in-exile” that sits on a dusty hillside in northern India, in the town of Dharamsala.
But his “government” has neither country nor international recognition. And the exiled Tibetans appear to have elected a man who has almost no experience of his homeland, and none of government.
