2 Criterions for Selecting Kalons: Ideology and Convention

Thursday, 24 August 2006, 5:30 PM

Dharamshala: Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche has said that ideological agreement and convention are the two guiding principles for the selection of the members of the new Kashag.

Kalon Tripa will table the list of his colleagues before the Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies this September end, when it will hold its second annual session.

An interview published in the August issue of the Tibetan World, quotes Kalon Tripa as saying that “As a cabinet, we have to bear the collective responsibility. Therefore, the people who are in the Kashag should be like-minded, but by this, I don’t mean that there should not be any difference in opinions.

“What I do mean is that with regard to their principles and ideologies, they should be like-minded people.

“And secondly, the Kashag must also represent some traditions of the Tibetan community,” the Kalon Tripa further added, when asked about the criterion for selecting Kalons.

After an overwhelming victory in the polls conducted for the post of Kalon Tripa last June, raking in about 91 per cent of the total votes cast, Prof Samdhong Rinpoche was sworn in by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for his second, consecutive term in the office of Kalon Tripa, on 15 August.

The induction of new Kalons requires the approval of the Assembly, by at least 50 per cent of votes cast in a secret ballot, by the deputies present in a (particular) session. Meanwhile, the Kalon Tripa will oversee the administration of all the seven departments under the Kashag.

(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)