Tibetan exiles living in India elected a Harvard law scholar as their political leader on Wednesday. The new leader is likely to bring in a more radical government-in-exile to challenge China.
The new Prime Minister, 42-year old Lobsang Sangay, received 55 percent of the total electorate, beating two other secular candidates.
Jampal Thosang, Chief Election Commissioner]:
"So the Election Commission of the central Tibetan administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has declared Dr. Lobsang Sangay as the third Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister)."
The handover of power will give the prime minister's role greater clout as the region seeks autonomy from China.
As a student in New Delhi, he was a leader of the Tibetan Youth Congress, which demands complete independence.
Born in a refugee settlement in India in 1968, Sangay won a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard where he earned a doctorate in law.
As a senior research fellow at the university, he has engaged with Chinese scholars and has twice organized meetings between them and the Dalai Lama.
As prime minister, Sangay will live in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Last month the Dalai Lama said he would relinquish the four-century old tradition of power in favor of a leader popularly elected by the Tibetan Diaspora.
He will continue as a spiritual leader to his people who revere him as an incarnation of the Buddhist deity of compassion.
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