Press ReleaseCopy
of the memorandum presented to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by the
Standing Committee of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile on the issue of
retirement.Your Holiness, We the members of the
Standing Committee of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, acting on behalf
of all Tibetans in Tibet and in exile, beseech with utmost solemnity as
under: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 Dharamsala; 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.Submitted with heartfelt prayers and devotion on 5th of January 2011 in the Tibetan Royal Year 2137Penpa TseringSpeaker, Tibetan Parliament-in-ExileDolma GyariDeputy-Speaker, Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile