DHARMSALA, India (AP) — In a lifetime spent advocating the plight of his Tibetan community, promoting inter-religious harmony, and pleading for world peace, the Dalai Lama now faces perhaps his greatest challenge: Trying to truly retire from politics.

In May, the Dalai Lama formally stepped down as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, giving up the political power that he and his predecessors as Dalai Lama have wielded over Tibetans for hundreds of years. Though he remains the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, his decision to abdicate is one of the biggest upheavals in the community since the Chinese crackdown led him to flee in 1959 into exile in India.

And it raises the question of whether a man worshipped by his people as a living deity can ever stop leading them.

"It's almost impossible for the Tibetan people to accept that their political, religious leader, their Buddha, will be truncated to just a religious leader,'' said Tenzin Tsundue, a 37-year-old poet and activist.

There are other questions as well, of the legitimacy of the exile government to speak for all Tibetans, of China's refusal to talk to the new leaders and of whether elected representatives could ever make a decision contradicting the revered holy man.

The Dalai Lama, the 14th in a line of men said to be the living incarnation of Chenrezig, a Buddhist god of compassion, says he had little choice. Though he appears hearty, he turns 76 this week.

He said he needed to act now because he feared political chaos would erupt in the Tibetan community after his eventual death, when the Chinese government and Buddhist monks are certain to argue over the identity of his successor reincarnation as the 15th Dalai Lama. "Now, that danger is no longer there,'' he said in an interview with the Associated Press.

He has also been working for years to move his people toward democracy, a form of government he has long advocated even as his people looked to him as a god-king. In 2001, he established the elected position of prime minister, known as the Kalon Tripa, for the Tibetan government-in-exile and handed over many of his administrative duties.

Though he remained in charge, he spoke with increasing frequency of his desire to fully give up power.

Earlier this year, as he watched the vibrancy of the election campaign for a new exile government, the Dalai Lama decided his people were ready, he said. He delivered a major address on March 19 calling on parliament to strip him of his political powers.

"That night, my sleep was extraordinarily, very sound,'' the Dalai Lama said. His people were terrified.