(TibetanReview.net, Jul07’26) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has on Jul 6 extended warm greetings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 91st birthday, refusing to be put off by the Chinese government’s criticisms of him for doing so over the past several years.
“Warm birthday greetings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His message of peace and harmony has been a guiding force for people across the world,” said PM Modi in his greetings posted on the X platform.
He continued that His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s “moral and spiritual strength and his commitment to global good are commendable.”
And he wished His Holiness “a long and healthy life.”
Other leaders in India who greeted the Dalai Lama on his birthday, per media reports seen today, included the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu who did so in a video-recorded message; Chief Minister of Sikkim Prem Singh Tamang (also known as PS Golay) who also took part in celebrations of the event in capital Gangtok; and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, and Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister Ojing Tasing.
The 91st birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was marked on a grand scale at a huge gathering in the Union Territory of Ladakh’s capital Leh, where he is presently sojourning, as well at McLeod Ganj, the exile Tibetan headquarters, and by Tibetan communities across the free world. It was also marked as a culmination of the “Year of Compassion”, announced by the Central Tibetan Administration last year to honour the Lama Lama on his 90th birthday.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s temporal head until 2011 and still its spiritual leader, only seeks genuine or meaningful autonomy for his Tibetan homeland. But China has embarked on assimilating the territory and its people, despite facing global condemnations for its move to erase the Tibetan civilization’s identity. It accuses him of being a separatist as an excuse for refusing to engage with him.
Born Lhamo Dhondub on Jul 6, 1935, in Taktser village in eastern Tibet’s Amdo province, and recognized by a Tibetan government search party as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two, he was ushered to the capital Lhasa in 1939. He was duly enthroned on Feb 22, 1940 and assumed full temporal authority on Nov 17, 1950 in the face of a looming Chinese invasion of the country.
Following China’s military suppression of a largely peaceful Tibetan national uprising in Mar 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India, along with more than 80,000 Tibetans. He has lived in exile in India ever since, still hoping to negotiate a peaceful settlement with China, which has since become a global superpower.