Dalai Lama recently declared that he will put forward a proposition that allows him to withdraw from the political responsibility in connection to the next meeting with the government-in-exile in March this year.
Next summer Dalai Lama - or Tenzin Gyatso - will become 75 and he has for long stressed the importance of creating a government of younger politicians, elected by the Tibetan people.
This might be a move in order to give the movement more strength and credibility among the Chinese leaders but also worldwide as some influential debaters oppose the religious leadership, as this would become a sort of theocracy, not in accordance with modern, democratic rules.
If the government-in-exile is 'converted' into a regular political body this might give them a greater strength and a formal status or position in the eyes of the World Community.
I doubt that Dalai Lama will leave the international scene, he will just concentrate on other tasks related to the liberation movement, aiming at an independent Tibet, free from the dictatorial rule of China.
On the other hand, Dalai Lama has himself been accused of trying to create a very top-down society with himself as both spiritual and political leader and this has caused negative publicity.
Now he can fully concentrate on the spiritual side, as important as the political I would say.
Representatives for the government-in-exile says that it might be difficult for some of them to accept the stepping down of Dalai Lama as the political leader and China says this is just a "trick" to fool the world.
They argue that the Lama will continue to act 'behind the curtains' and that nothing will change and as the Chinese government looks upon the Lama as an extremist - or why not a 'terrorist', using the now common word for all kinds of uprising, whether or not legitimate - they want him out of the way, declaring that the Chinese government are to decide who should become the next Lama. The Chinese government wants to decide who is the 'legitimate' lama, not leaving it to the religious community or the people.
This might lead to a situation with two religious leaders, one sanctioned by China, the other by the religious community and the people: 'Divide and Rule'!
Dalai Lama has now lived in exile since 1959.
