Dalai Lama turns 84; thousands celebrate birthday at McLeodganj

Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, July 6

Thousands of Tibetans, Indians, and foreigners gathered at the Tsuglagkhang (main temple of the Dalai Lama at McLeodganj) courtyard on Saturday to celebrate 84th birthday of the Dalai Lama.

However, the Dalai Lama did not attend the function. BJP MP Kishan Kapoor was also present. 

The 14th Dalai Lama left Tibet in 1959 to escape Chinese occupation and has been keeping China on tenterhooks about his successor.

In April this year, at a global conference, he had said, people from Tibet have been seeking a mutually acceptable solution to the Tibetan issue with China since 1974 but Beijing considers him a "splittist" though he isn't one.

The spiritual leader, who turned 84, had said he preferred Tibet remaining with China, with "some kind of a reunion".

The Tibetan spiritual leader recently apologised for his comment on women in a BBC interview, with his office in Dharamshala saying he has always opposed their objectification.

Responding to a question on whether his reincarnation could be a woman, the Nobel Peace Prize winner had joked that she should be attractive.

With inputs from PTI