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Lobsang Sangay: profile
It takes steely determination and confidence to step into the Dalai Lama's shoes without first rising from the grave.
Lobsang Sangay, the 43 year old Harvard academic, will be today become the first non-reincarnated man to succeed a Dalai Lama as Tibet's political leader, and his election as prime minister or Kalon Tripa marks a radical break with Tibet's feudal past.
The job description not only includes the ability to assume the mantle and profile of one of the world's best-loved leaders, but also the strength to confront China over its human rights abuses and the political guile to be able to do so without upsetting India, which has hosted the Tibetan Government-in-Exile since its flight from Chinese invasion in 1959.
His own background and his recent comments suggest he might have all these qualities. Although he has never lived in Tibet, he has seen his parents endure hardship to raise him in Darjeeling where they were given a small plot after they fled the Chinese occupation.
They were so poor, he said, they had to sell one of their three cows to pay for his education at the Tibetan High School and later Delhi University where he won a Fulbright Scholarship to study human rights law at Harvard.
He was the first of Tibet's six million people to win a place at the Harvard Law School.
He is regarded with some suspicion within the Indian government for his close relationship and affinity with the United States and its agenda regarding China.
His comments in advance of his swearing-in ceremony today gave a hint of how he will square up to Beijing in the next stage of Tibet's struggle for autonomy when he denounced China as a "colonial" power in Tibet.
"When China invaded Tibet in 1959, it promised the Tibetan people a "socialist paradise. First roads were built and along these roads were carted Tibet's untapped and abundant mineral and other natural resources to China. Forests were logged. The countless priceless statues and cultural artifacts housed in destroyed monasteries and temples made their way to China. In short, the "socialist paradise" the Tibetans were promised turned into colonialism, with Tibet's resources being made to fuel China's development. The Tibetan people resisted this development with determination but the resistance was crushed with military might. This is the Tibetan experience of China's "socialist paradise," he said.
Mohan Guruswamy, director of New Delhi's Centre for Policy Alternatives, said Mr Sangay will balance the more radical approach of Tibet's younger generation raised in exile with his own natural caution. "His instincts are good. He has a good understanding of Tibet's predicament. He won't go running around like a mad man or misusing India's hospitality," he said.