Tibetan administration appoints new US representative

Tibetan parliament-in-exile speaker Penpa Tsering has been appointed as a representative for the Office of Tibet in the US, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) announced on Saturday.

He will take charge either on July 1 or when the necessary documents are issued by the US government, it said.

The Office of Tibet that normally facilitates Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's visits and takes up issues related to the government-in-exile is based in Washington.

Tsering, who is yet to take a call on joining the office in the US, has faced defeat from sitting incumbent and Harvard-educated lawyer Lobsang Sangay in the prime ministerial polls, whose results were declared on April 27.

Sangay defeated his only rival, Tsering, receiving about 57 percent of the 58,740 votes cast across the globe in March.

The 80-year-old Dalai Lama, the global face of the Tibetan exile movement, lives in this town in Himachal Pradesh along with a small population of Tibetans.

Over six million Tibetans live in Tibet which is controlled by China.

--IANS

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