By Bappa Majumdar
NEW DELHI – The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, has been admitted to a hospital in India with “abdominal discomfort” but there was no cause for concern, doctors said on Thursday.
The spiritual leader, who cancelled two foreign trips after he complained of fatigue was “cheerful” after reaching the hospital in Mumbai, a hospital spokesman said.
“He has just been admitted for abdominal discomfort, investigation will commence tomorrow morning and there is no cause for concern,” Mohan Rajan, the spokesman, said from Mumbai.
“We cannot tell you for how many days he will stay in the hospital at the moment.”
The Nobel Peace Prize winner returned to Dharamsala, the north Indian town where Tibet’s self-proclaimed government-in-exile is based, on Sunday after a two-week visit to France.
The visit focused mainly on lectures on Buddhism, but during it he also criticised Chinese policies in Tibet.
He told Le Monde in an interview that Chinese troops had fired on protesters in eastern Tibet on Aug. 18, and that since protests against Chinese rule broke out in March, 400 people had been killed in the Lhasa area alone.
On Wednesday an aide told Reuters the 73-year-old was due to travel to Mumbai, India’s financial centre, to undergo “routine medical tests” in hospital.
“All I can say is that he is fine,” Chhime Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama’s aide told Reuters from Mumbai on Thursday.
On arrival, the Dalai Lama was escorted by hospitial officials to his room, where doctors carried out a preliminary check-up, his aide said.
“He is resting and has not had any visitor since he reached the hospital,” Chhoekyapa, who accompanied the Dalai Lama, said by telephone.
The Dalai Lama spends several months of the year away from Dharamsala, delivering religious lectures and speaking about what he calls the suffering of Tibetan people under Chinese rule.
In recent years, doctors have increased medical checks to ensure that the Lama was in good health.
“His holiness is in good health, he retires early in the evening and gets up early in the morning,” Chhoekyapa said.
