'Wish him long, healthy life': PM Modi greets Dalai Lama on his 86th birthday
In a virtual address from his residence in Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama thanked people from across the globe who greeted him on his birthday and said he would continue to serve humanity and combat climate change.
In a development with political and diplomatic ramifications, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the 14th Dalai Lama over phone and greeted him on his 86th birthday on Tuesday. He wished him long and healthy life.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.
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According to source in Dharamshala, the Prime Minister spoke to the 14th Dalai Lama for nearly 20 minutes this morning and His Holiness, who is right now in Dharamshala, was delighted to receive the call.
On his birthday, the Tibetan spiritual leader said that he has taken full advantage of India's freedom and religious harmony and is committed to reviving ancient Indian knowledge.
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In a virtual address from his residence in Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama thanked people from across the globe who greeted him on his birthday and said he would continue to serve humanity and combat climate change.
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In a virtual address from his residence in Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama thanked people from across the globe who greeted him on his birthday and said he would continue to serve humanity and combat climate change.
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“Since I became a refugee and settled in India, I have taken full advantage of India's freedom and religious harmony. I want to assure you that for the rest of my life I am committed to reviving ancient Indian knowledge,” said the Dalai Lama, whose real name is Tenzin Gyatso.
“I really appreciate the Indian concept of secular values, not dependent on religion, such as honesty, karuna (compassion) and ahimsa (non-violence),” he added.
In exile now for 62 years, the 14th Dalai Lama has been a symbol of struggle for the Tibetan people to the entire world. Perhaps his only desire is to go on a pilgrimage to China to visit the Wutai Shan, the sacred five peak mountain in Shamxi province which is the earthly abode of the Bodhisatva Manjusri.
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In an interview with Hindustan Times at Bodh Gaya in 2018, he said: "Way back in 1954, I had expressed my desire to Chinese government to visit Wutai Shan but was told that there was no road. I still have that desire but it is upto the Chinese government. Historically, the Wutai Shan is seat of Deva of wisdom. Whether I am there or not, that wisdom of the Deva is already in my brain.”
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
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