US favours Tibetan Buddhist system to choose Dalai Lama's successor: Samuel Brownback

The US government supports the Tibetan people and favours the Tibetan Buddhist system to choose the successor to spiritual leader Dalai Lama, country's Ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom Samuel D Brownback said on Monday.

The statement in this regard was made by Brownback during his meeting with Dalai Lama at his official palace here.

Central Tibetan Administration-run Tibet News Bureau reported Brownback as saying that the chief purpose of his visit was to send a clear message to the world, "particularly China" that "the United States government supports the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama and that the role of picking a successor to the Dalai Lama belongs to the Tibetan Buddhist system, the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders. It does not belong to anybody else, not any government or any entity."

During the visit, the Ambassador also met the survivors of religious persecution who had escaped from Tibet and held an hour-long interaction with them where they narrated their accounts.

Brownback had arrived in Dharamshala on Sunday at the invitation of CTA President Lobsang Sangay. The visit had come as part of his three-nation tour to the South Asian countries of India, Nepal, and Thailand. The Ambassador will travel to New Delhi on Tuesday for discussions on expanding US-India cooperation and shared global objectives.

Brownback will visit Nepal on November 1 where he will hold talks with the government and civil society leaders on strengthening religious freedom in the country. The following day, he will embark on a five-day visit to Thailand to take part in the Fifth Annual Southeast Asia Freedom of Religion or Belief Conference.