Exile Tibetan Children performs to celebrate the Dalai Lama's 80 birthday at Tsuglakhang temple in McLeod Ganj, India, on 6 July 2015. Thousands of Tibetans and supporters gathered at the temple courtyard to celebrate his birthday. The Dalai Lama celebrated his birthday in California. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
MCLEOD GANJ, India, 6 July 2015
Thousands of exile Tibetans and supporters gathered at the Tsuglakhang temple in McLeod Ganj to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday with songs, sweets and smiles.
The Dalai Lama was away to celebrate his birthday in California, where he will take part in a Global Compassion Summit. He celebrated his birthday according to the Tibetan calendar on 21 June.
The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister then renamed as “Potala Road” the road from the Dalai Lama’s residence to the nearby exile Tibetan headquarters down the hill, covering about two kilometres, in honour of the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday. Potala has been the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India after the Chinese invasion of his homeland.
At the celebrations at Tsuglakhang on Monday, three-tiered cakes as offerings for the Dalai Lama were served to the public. Following the cultural dance performances, a public feast was given.
Sikyong, the Prime Minister of the Tibetans-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, in his message on the occasion said, “Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet, as well as millions of others touched by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s message of peace and non-violence, observe this special occasion with immense delight.”
“For Tibetans, His Holiness is the life and soul of Tibet and the Tibetan people.”
Sangay, who faces election in March, hoped that the Chinese leadership will soon understand and accept the Middle-Way Approach as a mutually beneficial solution and continue the dialogue process with the envoys of the Dalai Lama as the only way to resolve the Tibetan issue.
Nine rounds of talks between the two sides since 2002 to 2010 remained fruitless. No talks have been held since Sangay was elected as the political leader of exile Tibetans after the Dalai Lama relinquished his political powers in 2011.
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