His Holiness the Dalai Lama Urged Not to Retire from Leader of Tibet
Wednesday, 05 January 2011 20:53 YC. Dhardhowa, The Tibet Post International
Dharamsala: Tibetan parliament in exile here Dharamshala Wednesday urged the Tibet’s spiritual and political leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama not to consider retirement or even semi-retirement from his position as the leader of Tibet and the Tibetan people. “Tibetans, both in Tibet and in exile, have been greatly concerned about your intention to retire
completely from governmental roles,” a memorandum submitted to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said.
The following is a memorandum issued on Wednesday by the members of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. “During the conclusion ceremony of the First Tibetan National General Meeting held in 2010 at the Bylakuppe Tibetan settlements, South India; in your response to questions asked during a meeting with the Chinese public in Toronto; at the founding anniversary of the Tibetan Children’s Village at Upper Dharamshala; and in your answer to questions asked at a press conference in New Delhi, Your Holiness expressed an intention to retire completely from governmental roles. Tibetans both in Tibet and in exile have been greatly concerned and grieved by this and have been continuing to petition Your Holiness, beseeching that you never entertain any thought about carrying out a plan for such a decision. We, the members of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, too have, likewise, been holding successive meetings with extremely grave concern over Your Holiness’s wish to take complete retirement from governmental roles.
Out of a feeling of great kindness for us, Your Holiness led the Tibetan people to the fine path of democracy, beginning with the introduction of reforms in the functioning of the Tibetan government the moment you assumed spiritual and temporal powers in Tibet. And as soon as you stepped foot on Indian soil after escaping into exile, Your Holiness introduced election to allow the Tibetan people to vote for their own representatives, and in 1963, Your Holiness also promulgated a Tibetan constitution. In 1991, Your Holiness approved to us the Charter of the Tibetans in Exile, under which you expanded the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile and made it into a lawmaking body which was in full conformity with the definition of a modern national legislature. In particular, Your Holiness, in 2001, introduced the system of direct election of the Kalon Tripa, thereby ensuring that the Tibetan people themselves vote for the head of their government.
To state it simply, no amount of offerings of precious materials can make up for even a fraction of the gratitude the Tibetan people owe for what they have received solely as a result of Your Holiness’s enormously great wishes and deeds. Besides, it does not bear mention that Your Holiness’s successive speeches of the recent times were, no doubt, motivated by your very kind desire to ensure the well being of the entire Tibetan people both for the present and in the longer term future. Nevertheless, it remains a fact that all of us of the Snowland of Tibet have been sustained thus far by Your Holiness’s kindness and generosity. On the basis of the Buddha’s sacred prediction, Your Holiness has been firm in abiding by the oath you had been moved to take over your chosen realm of religious teaching or temporal rule especially in these apposite times for fulfilling it.
Thus, it is inconceivable that for as long as this aeon endures, there can ever be a moment at which the people of Tibet can at all be separated from your excellent religious and temporal leadership. The very first point in each of the reports and resolutions adopted in a series of recent relevant meetings have made this point clear. They included the report adopted at the end of the First Special General Meeting of Tibetans held in 2008 in accordance with the provisions of Article 59 of the Charter of the Tibetans in Exile; during successive sessions of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile; and, in particular, Document Number of 63 of 2010, which was a unanimous resolution adopted during the ninth session of the fourteenth Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile.
Also, at the conclusion of the First Tibetan National General Meeting, which was held at the Tibetan settlements at Bylakuppe, in south India, a report was compiled which brought together the opinions and suggestions of all the delegates who attended it. The very first point of the political section of the report stated: “His Holiness the Dalai Lama has thus far assumed responsibility as the leader of the great Tibetan nation and as the head of the Tibetan government. On behalf of the Tibetan people both in Tibet and in exile, we offer immense gratitude to His Holiness. At the same time, His Holiness the Dalai Lama remarked in his speech that he was already in semi-retirement. This has plunged the entire people of Tibet, both those in the county and outside it, to such depth of despair that they are no longer able to digest their food or to go to sleep in peace. In view of this development, this general meeting appeals to His Holiness the Dalai Lama never to carry out any plan for such a decision.” This was unanimously adopted by the entire meeting.
Giving due consideration to the above series of pleas, we beseech and pray with heartfelt devotion that Your Holiness never ever contemplate going into either semi-retirement or full retirement.”