LT: Is that more than you ask for?
DL: Yes, that falls outside the scope of what I am asking for.
LT: Since the day you were born, you have never had the opportunity to choose your own life. Have you ever thought about what you would have been if you had not been born the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama?
DL: Since I am the Dalai Lama, I am the Dalai Lama. I never thought of anything else. I have three tasks in this life. One is to increase human benevolence, one is to promote harmony between religions. I will do all I can as long as I am alive in regard to these two tasks. The third task is that because I am Tibetan, and because I am the Dalai Lama, I therefore have the duty and the responsibility to speak for the Tibetan people, but because beginning in 2001, the premier of the government in exile has been elected in direct elections, I can now say that in this respect, I am in semi-retirement.
The interview was conducted for the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) in English and back-translated from Chinese.
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