Dalai Lama Thanks India for 50 Years of Shelter

Exiled Tibetan leader Dalai Lama on Monday thanked India for sheltering him and thousands of his compatriots who were forced to flee their homeland over the last 50 years, the 73 year old spiritual leader was speaking to reporters in New Delhi.

The Dalai is the leader of the exiled Tibetan community that has been based in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala since 1959.

“We are extremely grateful to this country for the past 50 years, for what the Indian government and the Indian public have done for us.”

“India has extended maximum help to the Tibetan community,” he said at the opening of a photography exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising against the Chinese rule that saw the septuagenarian flee his homeland and into India.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, after it sent in troops to “liberate” the small Himalayan country the previous year.