Tibetan exiles celebrate Dalai Lama's birthday in India

Jul 6, 2009, 13:32 GMT

New Delhi - Thousands of Tibetan exiles gathered in India's northern hill-town of Dharamsala Monday to celebrate the 74th birthday of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Local television showed scores of exiles and monks assembling in Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile to join the birthday celebrations.

'People prayed for the long life and health of the 14th Dalai Lama. At a function in New Delhi, people from various Indian states also paid tributes to His Holiness,' Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman of Dalai Lama, said.

The Nobel Peace laureate, who has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, told the gathering in Delhi that he was promoting secular harmony during his travels abroad.

'When I visited different countries in these years, I have not promoted or propagated Buddhism as said by many, but harmony, humanity and spirituality,' he was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency.

'I am promoting secular values, message of love, compassion, dignity, spirit of common values and harmony as has been promoted by great thinkers,' he said.

Striking an emotional chord with the gathering, mostly Tibetans living in various parts of India, the spiritual leader said with the prayers being said for him, he would surely celebrate his 100th birthday.

In Dharamsala, special prayer sessions were held at the main Tsuglagkhang temple complex where members of the Tibetan parliament and the government-in-exile participated. Last year's birthday celebrations were largely subdued due to unrest in Tibet.

Born in 1935 in northeastern Amdo province of Tibet, Lhamo Dhondrub was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of 2. He was brought to Lhasa in October 1939, and enthroned as the head of the state of Tibet on February 22, 1940.

He fled to Dharamsala after a failed uprising against Chinese rule on March 10, 1959.

The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign for democracy and freedom in his homeland.

A total of 140,000 Tibetans now live in exile, nearly 110,000 of them in 35 settlements across India. Six million Tibetans live inside Tibet.