Dalai Lama admitted to hospital in India

The Dalai Lama has been admitted to hospital in the Indian capital, Delhi, with a chest infection, but is reported to be in a stable condition.

He was flown to Delhi from his hill town base after complaining of discomfort, his private aide Tenzin Taklha said as social media users prayed for the Buddhist monk’s fast recovery.

The 83-year-old Dalai Lama, who fled to India in early 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, lives in exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala.

“His Holiness is doing fine now,” Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama’s press secretary, told agencies without giving details.

The Dalai Lama was admitted to hospital on Tuesday after complaining of discomfort and was later diagnosed with a chest infection, his personal secretary said, adding he would spend a few days in the hospital.

The Nobel peace laureate is a hugely popular speaker but has cut down his global engagements in recent years.

A hospital official declined to comment on his medical condition, citing patient confidentiality.

Many of his supporters posted messages on social media wishing him a speedy recovery.

“Concerned that he has been hospitalized,” tweeted Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha.

“The world needs him.”

About 100,000 Tibetans live in India and many worry that their fight for a genuinely autonomous homeland would end with the Dalai Lama.

China, which took control of Tibet in 1950, brands the Nobel peace laureate a dangerous separatist and has said its leaders have the right to approve the Dalai Lama’s successor, as a legacy inherited from China’s emperors.

But many Tibetans - whose tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death - suspect any Chinese role as a ploy to exert influence on the community.