Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), Sep 3 (IANS) Speeches, book releases and cultural shows marked a function to celebrate 'Tibetan Democracy Day' in this north Indian town attended by hundreds of Tibetans amid pouring rain.
At the function Saturday, three Tibetan students who had topped in this year's Senior Secondary School examinations were given a cash award of Rs.5,000 and a certificate of merit.
Samdhong Rinpoche, Tibetan 'prime minister' (Kalon Tripa), said: "Even after years of democratic administration, inadequacies continue to blight the process of democratic maturity in exile."
"If the Tibetan populace and their elected representatives, lawfully and competently, avail themselves of the existing legal and institutional mechanisms, well entrenched in their polity, it could yield an incomparable democratic society," Rinpoche said.
"The Tibetan people, especially the educated young, must come to the fore in making up for this shortage of democratic values, like tolerance of plurality and difference, rationality and respecting the majority's choice," he added.
Dharamsala is the seat of the Tibetan 'government in exile' and the Dalai Lama has made the town his home along with thousands of his followers after he fled Tibet following a failed uprising in 1959.