Dalai Lama to Retire From Public Life

The Tibet leader says he will no longer play a political role and wishes to live as a simple monk.

Speaking in India at an event to mark the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the 76-year-old Dalai Lama said he is dissolving his own authority as leader of the Tibetan community in exile, effective within days. For years he has signaled that the Tibetan people’s leader needs to be elected, and he has requested that the government in exile make constitutional changes in order to relieve him of his authority and appoint a new leader. The move was seen by many as an attempt to heal the rift between the exiled community and the 6 million Tibetans living in China. While the Dalai Lama will have no official political function, many Tibetans will continue to see him as their spokesman.