DHAKA: Beijing on Wednesday dismissed the possibility of the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet, days after the exiled spiritual leader indicated he was in contact with Chinese officials over a historic pilgrimage.

‘Our position on the Dalai Lama is consistent and clear,’ Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing, reports The Straits Times.

‘What he needs to do is not make a so-called return to Tibet but give up his position and conduct on splitting China,’ he added.

‘This will do good for him.’

Now aged 79, the Dalai Lama has been exiled from Tibet since he fled a failed uprising in 1959.

Beijing has since condemned him as a ‘dangerous separatist’, yet the Nobel laureate spiritual leader, who retired from politics in 2011, maintains that he wants only greater autonomy for Tibetan areas in China.

BDST: 1715HRS, OCT 08, 2014