Tibetan govt-in-exile gets new president

DHARMSALA/LHASA: Penpa Tsering, the former speaker of Tibet’s parliament-in-exile, has been elected the new president of the exile government, the election commissioner said on Friday.

He will succeed Lobsang Sangay, who completes his second five-year term at the end of May, election commissioner Wangdu Tsering said in Dharmsala, a northern Indian town where spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been living since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Nearly 64,000 Tibetans living in exile in India, Nepal, North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere voted in the election, which was held in two rounds in January and April.

China tells Tibetans to restrict religious customs

Tibetans in Lhasa have been instructed to restrict certain religious practices during the holy month called ‘Saga Dawa’, in what appears to be yet another move by Chinese authorities to curb the religious freedom of the Buddhist population.

This decision was announced in a circular sent by the Lhasa City Buddhist Association on May 9.