Dalai Lama says he will serve as 'pure spiritual leader'+

TOKYO, April 29 Kyodo -
The Dalai Lama said Friday he will serve as a ''pure spiritual leader'' after handing over his political power to the newly elected prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile.
''I now decided to hand over all my legitimate political authority to the elected political leadership,'' the Tibetan spiritual leader told a press conference after presiding over prayers for victims of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami at a temple in Tokyo. ''That does not mean I resign from Dalai Lama.''
''I made clear the Dalai Lama institution should be pure spiritual leader, spiritual institution,'' he said.
This marked the first press conference by the Dalai Lama after Harvard legal scholar Lobsang Sangay was elected the new prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, on Wednesday through votes cast by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world. The Dalai Lama earlier said he wanted to devolve political authority to an elected leader.
Now conditions are ''sort of right, so I now decide to hand over all my legitimate political authority to the elected political leadership,'' the Dalai Lama told Friday's press conference.
''Now the majority of them (Tibetans) understand my decision is timely,'' he said.
The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, criticized China for politically and culturally suppressing people in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
He said many Tibetans died due to ''some kind of political tsunami.''
''Inside Tibet, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place,'' the Dalai Lama said.