The Dalai Lama says the enduring harmony between India's many religions is proof to the world that different communities can live peacefully and solve problems together.
The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader has lived for decades in exile in India's Himalayan foothill city of Dharamsala, after fleeing China after a failed 1959 uprising.
He said Saturday that "India is the only country where all major world religions live together, not only in modern time, but over 1,000 years."
The Dalai Lama was speaking to leaders from nine religious groups invited for two days of meetings to mull some of India's biggest problems, including poverty, attacks on women, environmental degradation and communal violence.
He stressed that there was no justification for fighting in the name of faith, calling it "unthinkable."