Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, speaks during a press conference in Mexico City on September 9, 2011.
London (CNN) -- The Dalai Lama refused to answer a question Monday about whether Tibetan monks should stop setting themselves on fire to protest China＇s occupation of Tibet.
"No answer," he said, saying it was a sensitive political question and that he had retired from politics.
He handed over political leadership of the Tibetan community to an elected prime minister last year.
Self-immolation is becoming an increasingly common form of protest for Tibetans who want genuine autonomy from China and accuse Beijing of repression.
More than 30 of them took place in the last year in China, Tibetan advocacy groups say.
The Dalai Lama was speaking in London, where he is accepting the Templeton Prize, an award worth ￡1.1 million ($1.74 million) which honors "outstanding individuals who have devoted their talents to expanding our vision of human purpose and ultimate reality."
The Dalai Lama will give $1.5 million to the aid organization Save the Children, he said.
He is giving another $200,000 of the prize money to the Mind & Life Institute, and $75,000 to his own monastic community.
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