Dharamsala, India - TIBETAN exiles braving pouring rain in the northern Indian hilltop town of Dharamsala turned out in their hundreds today to celebrate the 70th birthday of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Saffron-clad monks, Tibetan refugees and children prayed outside their god-king's palace as the Dalai Lama was joined by Buddhist spiritual heads at the celebrations, about 500km north of New Delhi.
The Dalai Lama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent freedom struggle, unveiled a book on India's independence hero Mahatma Gandhi at the start of the three day non-stop religious and cultural pageantry.
Indian author S. Imamdar, who wrote the book, told the gathering that the Dalai Lama had "taken the baton" from Gandhi, while Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile, said the focus on India's apostle of peace was deliberate.
"It is a significant gesture because our spiritual leader deeply believes in Gandhi's non-violent method of struggle, which led to India's freedom from British rule," Samphel said.
The Dalai Lama opposes demands of hardline Tibetans for independence from Chinese rule and instead calls for greater autonomy for his homeland, which he fled in 1959 after Beijing crushed an anti-Chinese uprising in the landlocked country.
As Tibetan bagpipers played western tunes, Samphel said the previous practice of symbolically releasing caged birds had been abandoned.
"It proved traumatic for the birds, which were brought in cages to be released, so we have decided to do away with the practice," said Samphel in Dharamsala, where the Tibetan exiled government is seated.
Tibetan centres across the world are also conducting prayers for their god-king and exiles said "secret instructions" had been sent to Buddhist monasteries in China to join the prayers.
The Tibetan Youth Congress, which often opposes the Dalai Lama's moderate "Middle Path" approach in dealing with China, joined the occasion, distributing compact disks with songs scripted by the fifth Dalai Lama and prayers in praise of the present Dalai Lama.