NEW DELHI, May 15 – Tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world are offering prayers to the Dalai Lama as Tibet’s government-in-exile gears up for a birthday bash for the spiritual leader who turns 70 in July, officials say.
The northern Indian hilltop town of Dharamsala, where the exiled government is seated, is also moving into high gear to host Buddhist religious leaders and A-list Hollywood celebrities set to attend the July 6 festivities for the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.
“When his holiness completed 60 years we celebrated it with fervour in New Delhi,” Tibetan Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche told AFP by telephone from the town.
“Now the Dalai Lama is reaching a glorious age and so we will commemorate the event in a much grander manner in Dharamsala.”
Thubten Samphel, secretary in the Tibetan administration’s department of international affairs, said Tibetans around the world have started special prayers in the run-up to the birthday asking for the spiritual leader to live a long life.
Plans were still being finalised but the celebrations would include a carnival of Tibetan culture such as dance performances as well as religious seminars, administration officials said.
No guest list has been released for security reasons, officials said.
Born Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6, 1935, in the remote Tibetan village of Taksar, the son a peasant family was discovered as the 14th incarnation of Tibetan Buddhism’s supreme religious leader as a toddler and enthroned at the age of four on February 22, 1940, in Lhasa.
Rinpoche ruled out worries that blossoming relations between India and China could cast a shadow on the year-long bash for the Dalai Lama, who renewed contacts with Beijing in 2002 after a nine-year hiatus.
He noted that the Dalai Lama, awarded the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication to Tibet’s nonviolent liberation, was not seeking independence for his homeland anymore.
Now the Dalai Lama talks of a “meaningful autonomy” to preserve Tibetan culture, language and environment.
“We don’t view the warming ties as detrimental to our cause because the more relations improve it will give India more room to talk with China about Tibet in a frank and direct manner and we think this will help our cause,” he said.
During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to New Delhi last month, India recognised that Tibet is part of China and pledged not to allow its territory to be used for anti-China political activities.
In return Beijing accepted Sikkim, a tiny Himalayan sliver reaching into Tibet, as Indian territory.
India has played host to the Dalai Lama and the government-in-exile since the spiritual leader fled Tibet disguised as a soldier in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
There now are over 200,000 Tibetan refugees living in India by official count.
During that time, the Dalai Lama has travelled widely and become a respected leader on the world stage with followers around the globe.
Samphel said followers of the Dalai Lama will celebrate his birthday with “devotion, dedication and a great sense of duty”.
“Seventy years is a milestone in any individual’s personal life,” he said.
The Tibetan government earlier this year called on Tibetans to offer prayers for the longevity of the Dalai Lama and set up health clinics in parts of rural India to offer free treatment as a start-up to the Dalai Lama’s birthday bash.
Both Rinpoche and Samphel also rejected speculation that the Dalai’s Lama’s stand on Tibet with China has upset a hawkish section of the Tibetan leadership pressing for a worldwide campaign against Beijing’s rule in their homeland.
Some radical Tibetans have accused the Dalai Lama of selling out the independence cause.
“We now live in a democratic society. We allow people to have different viewpoints and ideologies but as far as his leadership is concerned there is no dispute,” Rinpoche said.
