THE Dalai Lama jokes, in his broken English, that these days, “demon peacefully sleeping”. He playfully puts his hands up by his head to make horns with his fingers; a mocking reference to the word he says Chinese officials have used to describe him. But since the leader of Tibetan Buddhism officially retired from politics in August 2011, he has kept up a hectic schedule; touring foreign countries and giving Buddhist teachings around India where he lives. And although he insists now that he has given up holding regular meetings with officials from Tibet’s government-in-exile, he remains a figure of crucial political importance to his troubled homeland (see our story in this week's issue). “This life…now service at least in the field of Tibetan struggle, now already end,” he told The Economist in a reception room at his residence in the town of Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills. This would be a disappointment to many of the Tibetans who queue up to see him. At the age of 77, and in hearty spirits, the Dalai Lama gives the impression of being as keenly interested in, and painfully aware of, conditions in Tibet as he ever was. He insists that he is now—and will be for the rest of his life—engaged in promoting “human values”, “religious harmony” and a dialogue between Buddhism and modern science. But the wave of self-immolations in Tibet, mainly in the two years since he announced his retirement (see our post on Analects, February 15th), has kept him at the centre stage of Tibetan politics. The Dalai Lama denies that he has encouraged these “drastic acts” (107 of them, resulting in 88 deaths, according to Tibetan exiles). But to China’s anger, he has not condemned them and has publicly said prayers for the victims. In Tibet, he explains, “the majority of the people have a lot of resentment”. He dismisses China’s assertions that the self-immolators have often set fire to themselves for non-political reasons (see, for example, this description by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, of how alcoholism and family strife appeared to have led to one such suicide). “These self-burned people, not drunk, not family problem”, he says. “I met some Tibetans. I think many of them, either their parents or grandparents were killed, or arrested and died in prisons, or gulags. So you see the resentment not just recently happened. No.” Chinese leaders, he says, fail to understand this.

The Dalai Lama blames the self-immolations on increasingly tight religious and cultural controls in Tibet. In some areas local officials from China’s ethnic-Han majority have made it more difficult for Tibetans to learn their own language in school, he says. He describes the self-immolations as a “very sensitive political matter”. But he says that his retirement and what he alleges is China’s tendency to “manipulate” his words, have encouraged him to “remain completely silent”. Lobsang Sangay, the government-in-exile’s prime minister who took over the Dalai Lama’s political duties, is blunter. “The message from inside, when someone does self-immolation, is that the number one concern is the return of the Dalai Lama. They want to die, not live as political prisoners under China,” he told The Economist. (Mr Sangay, an American-educated former academic, insists that “political responsibility is with me”, but says he does have “personal” meetings with the Dalai Lama, who offers his experience.)

A growing sense in Tibet that the Dalai Lama is highly unlikely ever to return to his homeland may well be one of the reasons for the spate of immolations. If he dies in exile, the Dalai Lama has said he will likely be reincarnated in the “free world” (see, for example, this interview in 2009 with CNN). This implies that Tibetans will have little chance of seeing the next Dalai Lama in Tibet either, unless huge political change occurs there. The Dalai Lama scoffs at attempts by the Chinese government in recent years to claim a role in the approval of reincarnations (an obvious attempt, say exiles, to lay the groundwork for rejecting the legitimacy of any Dalai Lama chosen outside China and for installing one whom the Chinese authorities believe they can control). “I jokingly said, firstly Chinese communists must accept theory of reincarnation, then second the Communist Party should recognise Chairman Mao Zedong’s reincarnation, then Deng Xiaoping’s reincarnation, then logically show an interest in Dalai Lama’s reincarnation”, says the Dalai Lama with a laugh. With an equal measure of mirth (apparently aimed at showing his own ability to accommodate the party’s faith), he says: “As far as social-economic theory is concerned, I am still a Marxist, not capitalist. That’s not secret.”

The Buddhist leader says he remains committed to a statement he made in September 2011 (see here for the full text) that he will consult other lamas and lay Tibetans about the reincarnation issue when he is “around ninety”. If people feel then the institution of the Dalai Lama is no longer relevant, then it will be abolished, “no problem”, he said, noting that the pope had recently broken with 600-year-old Catholic tradition by resigning. “I think best thing is like pope sort of system”, he says. But the Dalai Lama also says that he regards Tibetans inside Tibet as his “boss”. Given the reverence widely held in Tibet for the institution, it would seem unlikely that there would be calls for it to end. “Morally speaking, I cannot say you should do this, you should not do this,” he says.

The Dalai Lama says he does see some “positive things” in China. He describes meeting a Tibetan monk recently who told him about how “hundreds” of Han Chinese sought his blessings as he toured around China. He speaks of growing demands for political reform among Chinese, including Wen Jiabao, who will step down as prime minister in a few days (though as we reported in 2010, scepticism about Mr Wen’s ability or determination to change anything has long abounded). “Voice of change, of freedom, democracy, rule of law, now these voice[s] are growing year by year”, he says. “Overall picture: this is change, becoming more realistic.” And as China changes, he says, the Tibetan issue will be solved “easily”. If only Tibetans were as optimistic.