In a canny move to dodge Beijing’s efforts to control the direction of Tibetan politics, the Dalai Lama announced Thursday that he will cede his role as political leader of Tibetans to the elected prime-minister-in-exile.

“This is a revolutionary thing that he has suggested,” said Srikanth Kondapalli, a Tibet expert with Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. The Chinese government has been trying to insert itself into Tibetan succession questions, he said, one factor that no doubt motivated the move. At the same time, the Dalai Lama has taken note of both the messiness in other lama succession cases, and is intent on investing as much authority as possible in an elected leader.

via Dalai Lama cedes control in hopes of curbing Chinese control – The Globe and Mail.

I’d guess he’s planning to spend more time working on the slice.

I, for one, am still looking forward to the total consciousness thing (it turns out we are our own overlords).