After months of political theatrics in the Tibetan Diaspora following His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s official announcement to retire from active politics, the dust now seems to have, more or less, settled on yet another historic episode in the evolution of our exile movement. While I have my reservations about the manner in which some of the changes were brought about, I am, in general, quite pleased by the scale and the sophistication of deliberations that took place in the aftermath of His Holiness’ March 10th statement. That said, one of the key issues which I thought was conspicuously missing from these, otherwise wide-ranging, discussions was the issue of long-term financial sustainability of the new Dalai Lama-less Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It is with an intention to stir a debate on this critical issue that I have decided to write this piece.
There is no hiding the fact that our exile administration’s dependence on the person of His Holiness is not limited to political leadership; it stretches to, among other things, financial matters as well. It is a lesser-known fact that nearly a quarter of the CTA’s annual revenue comes from the coffers of the Dalai Lama’s Private Office. Now that His Holiness has already renounced all his decision-making powers, I think it would be grossly inappropriate for us to continue to look up to Kundun to bear the brunt of the CTA’s operational costs. Thus, in the next few years, in line with our goal to transform the CTA into a completely self-sustaining body, I think measures must be taken to gradually relieve His Holiness of this last remaining responsibility too.
