The Dalai Lama, Vishvapani and the Census

The Dalai Lama announced on Thursday that he was stepping down as political leader of the Tibetan government in exile.

"As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power," the Dalai Lama said. "Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect."

The Dalai Lama has long seen himself as "semi-retired" from political leadership with an elected prime minister already in place in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala. He remains Tibet's spiritual leader.

On Friday Vishvapani delivered BBC radio 4's "Thought for the Day" on the subject of the Dalai Lama's stepping down from his political duties. You can hear it HERE on our Audio Page "Thought for the Day" section. As mentioned in a previous post the number of Buddhist Thought for the Day talks is directly linked to the percentage of Buddhists in the U.K. as identified by the census. So on March the 27th, "Tick the Box for Buddhism".