Dharamsala, March 9 (IANS) The Dalai Lama Monday said here he would try to live longer for the Tibetan cause, amid concerns about the health of the 73-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.
Thanking the Tibetan community at large and hundreds of exiled Tibetans who turned up at the Tsuglag Khang or main temple in Mcleodganj near this Himachal Pradesh town for offering ‘long life’ prayers for him, the Dalai Lama said he hoped to live longer.

“I will try to live longer for the Tibetan cause,” the Dalai Lama, who will turn 74 years old July 6 this year, told his followers in Tibetan as he came to the prayer venue from his palace-in-exile to thank people.

There have been health concerns about the Dalai Lama, especially in the last one year. He has been to hospital on at least four occasions, and was admitted to leading hospitals in Mumbai and New Delhi, for some days. He was operated upon October last year for gall bladder stones in New Delhi.

“We all must now focus on the difficulties being faced by Tibetans inside Tibet. We should show solidarity with them,” the Dalai Lama said a day before the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Chinese troops had March 10, 1959, crushed an uprising by Tibetan people in Lhasa and other places in Tibet, forcing the Dalai Lama to escape from there. He has been living in exile in India for the last five decades.

-Indo-Asian News Service

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