Dalai Lama's Home-in-Exile Is Hippie Haven

Thousands bid farewell to marchers as they leave Dharamsala

(NEWSER) - Cheering thousands bid farewell to more than 100 Tibetan exiles as they began a trek today from India back to their homeland to protest China's rule over Tibet. "Everybody is pumped up," said one marcher. "Many people were in tears as they said goodbye." Organizers hope to capitalize on increased international scrutiny of China in advance of the Beijing Olympics in the latest push for Tibetan independence. More»

Lobsang Sangay will follow Dalai Lama's policies

(AP) - A Harvard-trained legal scholar was sworn in today as the new head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, taking over from the Dalai Lama as leader of his people's fight for freedom. Lobsang Sangay, who was elected in April by tens of thousands of Tibetans in exile, was surrounded by hundreds of Buddhist monks and nuns as well as the Dalai Lama as he took the oath of office in the northern Indian city of Dharmsala, where the exile administration is based. More»

Lama will remain as spiritual leader

(NEWSER) - Tibetans in exile elected Harvard-educated academic Lobsang Sangay as their new prime minister today, hoisting him into the role of political leader that the Dalai Lama is vacating, the Wall Street Journal reports. Until now, the prime minister, or “Kalon Tripa,” of Tibet’s government in exile has had primarily administrative duties. But with the Lama announcing his retirement from politics last month, most of his duties will now fall to Sangay. More»

Spiritual leader making way for elected head of exiled government

(NEWSER) - The Dalai Lama is relinquishing his role as political leader of Tibet's government-in-exile to make way for an elected figure. The 75-year-old leader—speaking in India on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule—stressed that he isn't retiring and will remain as his people's spiritual guide and continue to be active on the world stage, the BBC reports. More»

(NEWSER) - The Dalai Lama has told Tibetans his successor should not bear the burden of being both spiritual and political leader to their community, the Independent reports. "When we put the whole responsibility in the person of the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous," he said in a video address at a Tibetan election symposium in India. Tibetans need both a spiritual and a "democratically elected" political leader. More»