Polls to elect next head of Tibetan Government-in-Exile: Bylakuppe’s Penpa Tsering emerges frontrunner

The 54-year-old has already chalked out his priority as the Sikyong — launching an international campaign to press upon the Xi Jinping regime in Beijing

Lobsang Nyindak was among the early thousands, who followed the 14TH Dalai Lama, left Tibet and took refuge in India in late 1950s and early 1960s. He and his wife Tsamla settled at Bylakuppe in Karnataka.

But the home they left behind in the high plains of Amdo in northeastern corner of Tibetan Plateau was always at the core of the bedtime stories their children grew up listening to.

And, six decades later, the son of Lobsang and Tsamla, Penpa Tsering, now seems set to lead the Tibetans living in exile around the world in their struggle to liberate the homeland their ancestors and they had to leave behind after it was occupied by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Tsering is one of the two candidates, who secured highest number of votes in the preliminary round of elections to the office of the ‘Sikyong’ or the President of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE) – formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration or CTA – based at Dharamshala in India. The TGiE’s Election Commission on Sunday announced the results of the preliminary round of polls, which was held on January 3 last with thousands of Tibetans living in exile in India and elsewhere around the world casting votes to elect the new political leader of the community.

Since Tsering is way ahead of the runner-up Kelsang Dorjee Aukatsang in terms of vote-count in the preliminary polls, he is being seen within the community as the frontrunner for the final round of elections next month too.

The 54-year-old has already chalked out his priority as the ‘Sikyong’ – launching an international campaign to press upon the Xi Jinping’s regime in Beijing that China had no other option, but to peacefully and expeditiously resolve the issue of Tibet. A staunch believer in the ‘Middle Way’ approach of Dalai Lama, he insists that the solution to the issue has to be “equitable” – “fair and just to both the Tibetans and the Chinese”, in view of the “reality of the situation”.

“I grew up listening from my parents the tales of Tibet,” Tsering tells DH and adds: “My father always kept on telling me and my brothers and sisters that we must keep supporting His Holiness Dalai Lama’s pursuit for genuine autonomy for all Tibetans.”

He already served as a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile (TPiE) from 1996 to 2016, the last eight years as its Speaker. He was appointed as Dalai Lama’s representative to North America in 2016 and was responsible for Dharamshala’s outreach to Washington D.C. and organized the high-profile visit of a bipartisan delegation of the US Congress led by Nancy Pelosi to the headquarters of the TGiE.

No wonder, the Chinese Government black-listed Tsering. When a namesake of him landed in Kathmandu in June 2019, Beijing forced the Nepalese Government to deport the man to the United States.

His parents took up farming to eke out a living for the refugee family. After passing out from the Central School for Tibetans in Bylakuppe, when he went to Madras Christian College in Chennai for graduation, he had to work in a restaurant to make ends meet. That is perhaps why he pledged to prioritize welfare of the exiled Tibetans, particularly to help the farmers within the community market produces.

The Dalai Lama set up the TGiE or the CTA on April 29, 1959, just a few weeks after he arrived in India following his escape from Tibet, which had been occupied by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in 1950-51. He also started introducing the Tibetan refugees in India to democratic practices since 1960s. The CTA calls itself the “continuation of the government of independent Tibet”.

What has added to the significance of the election of the Sikyong this year is that the democratic exercise by the exiled Tibetans last year got endorsement from the United States. The US Congress late last year passed the Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA) of 2020, acknowledging the legitimacy of both the Tibetan Parliament in Exile and the Tibetan Government in Exile or the Central Tibetan Administration. The TPSA 2020, which the then US President Donald Trump signed into law, acknowledged the Central Tibetan Administration as the “legitimate institution reflecting the aspirations” of the Tibetan Diaspora around the world with Sikyong as its President.

Beijing does not recognize the elections to the Sikyong and the TPiE and repeatedly asked India to shut down the TGiE. It has been accusing Dalai Lama as well as the TGiE of running a secessionist campaign against China.

New Delhi officially never acknowledged the existence of the TGiE or the CTA. But it did tacitly encourage the Dalai Lama to lead the exiled community to embrace democracy gradually – starting with electing the Parliament-in-Exile and then moving on to directly elect the leader of the TGiE. It was during the 2011 elections that Dalai Lama officially announced that he would be delegating his political powers to whoever would be elected democratically to the top office of the TGiE – a move, which was apparently aimed at avoiding a leadership vacuum and keeping the struggle against China’s rule in Tibet alive beyond the lifetime of the octogenarian monk.

Tibetans living in Tibet under the repressive rule of the Chinese Government could not take part in the elections. “We need to understand the thinking and aspiration of the Tibetan youths inside Tibet and pool their energies also on achieving a better resolution of our cause,” says Tsering, insisting that the main responsibility of the Sikyong and the CTA is to represent Tibetans in Tibet.