The prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile on Friday called on the international community to resist growing pressure from China and stand up for human rights in his homeland.
Lobsang Sangay, who last year took over political duties from revered Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, said that a spate of self-immolation protests were proof of severe Chinese repression in Tibet.
"Now I have more responsibilities, the Chinese government is raising pressure on the West," Sangay told a meeting in the northern hilltown of Dharamshala. "We have to re-establish our strong contacts with these countries."
The Dalai Lama, 77, is a totemic figure for the Tibetan cause and has kept the Tibetan movement high on the global agenda, but he has now handed over all political duties to Sangay, a Harvard-educated scholar who lacks the same high profile.
Sangay said Tibetan exiles, who have been based in Dharamshala since the Dalai Lama fled after a failed uprising in 1959, were determined to highlight that authoritarian Chinese rule was triggering the scores of fatal protests.
"We send a strong message to China that we will not tolerate these repressive policies," he told 400 delegates from around the world who gathered for the meeting.
"We seek and need support from the international community to push China to stop oppression in Tibet," he said.
Sangay, 44, who was born in India and has never visited Tibet, won elections last year and has since faced intense frustration from Tibetans distraught over the unprecedented self-immolations.
Since 2009, 51 people have set themselves on fire across Tibetan-inhabited areas of China, with 41 dying from their burns.
Tibetan leaders are keen to show they are addressing the protests, but the four-day meeting struggled to get around the exiles' lack of influence inside Tibet and the absence of new ideas in how to deal with China.
"The discussions have been too narrow. We missed the bigger picture," Tenzin Tsundue, a writer and activist who attended the conclave, told AFP.
"The organisers have kept the debate to just responding to self-immolations when we need a complete review of our approach to end the repression."
Both the Dalai Lama and the prime minister have appealed to Tibetans not to resort to self-immolation.
The Dalai Lama, who stayed away from the meeting to emphasise the administration's democratic mandate, held a prayer session at the main temple in Dharamshala marking the final day of talks.
Sangay's increased responsibilities are seen as a long-term plan to prevent the Tibetan cause from breaking up after the Dalai Lama's death.
"The driving force (within Tibetan politics) is the realisation that the Dalai Lama will die and the window of opportunity is closing very fast," Robbie Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University, told AFP.
"The huge time pressure on them is real... but they don't seem to be entirely realistic about facing one of the world's most powerful governments who you can't bully into submission."
