‘Dalai Lama will continue to work for Tibet cause’

DHARAMSALA - Tibetan prime minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche has said there is no need to worry about the Dalai Lama’s retirement plan as he would continue to work for the cause of Tibet, an official statement said here Friday.

“His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) has recently clarified his statement on retirement that except some changes in his day-to-day administrative obligations, he would never disassociate from the Tibetan people,” Rinpoche said Thursday while addressing people of Tibet in Sarnath, 12 km from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

“He would continue to work for the cause of Tibet,” he added.

Over 1,800 Tibetans have come from different parts of Tibet to Sarnath to attend a five-day teaching of the Dalai Lama.

“Even though the younger Tibetans who were born and brought up after 1959 - have never met the Dalai Lama, nor seen and heard of Tibet’s earlier free society - they deeply believe in and revere the Dalai Lama,” Rinpoche said.

“The Tibetans inside Tibet have remained patriotic and braved great tribulation by sacrificing their lives to preserve our identity, which is a remarkable achievement of their last three generations,” he said.

Rinpoche said: “We in exile have also been keeping our faith intact on Tibetans living inside Tibet, whom we describe as the hope of Tibet’s survival.”

The Dalai Lama recently indicated that he would quit public life and hand over most of his political powers to the prime minister-in-exile.

But later he clarified, saying his stated retirement from public life does not mean he has forgotten the Tibetan struggle.

“More than 99 percent of Tibetans in and outside Tibet trust me, so I have the moral responsibility to serve them,” the Nobel laureate said.

The Tibetan leader, who fled to India in 1959, heads his government-in-exile based here. It is not recognised by any country. Over 94,000 Tibetans now live in India.