Chinese training Tibetan women to poison Dalai Lama?

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Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has spoken of a threat to his life from Chinese agents, saying there were reports that Tibetan women are being trained to harm him.

The Dalai Lama's office based in Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is headquartered, on Sunday confirmed that 'there is a threat perception to his life'.

"His Holiness himself received messages (about the threats)," the Dalai Lama's private secretary Chimme Choekyappa told.

In an exclusive interview with this week's Sunday Telegraph in Britain, the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner revealed he had received reports from inside Tibet warning that Chinese agents had trained Tibetan women for a mission to poison him while posing as devotees seeking his blessings.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader said he lives within a high security cordon in his temple palace grounds in Dharamsala, in the Himalayan foothills, on the advice of Indian security officials.

However, security officials here said from time to time they are reviewing his security.

"Whenever there are some sort of intelligence inputs about perceived threats, we review His Holiness' security thoroughly. If there are any loopholes found in the security, they are plugged," Director General of Police I.D. Bhandari said.

The Dalai Lama told the Sunday Telegraph: "We received some sort of information from Tibet. Some Chinese agents training some Tibetans, especially women, you see, using poison - the hair poisoned, and the scarf poisoned - they were supposed to seek blessing from me, and my handtouch."

He said suspicion of Chinese interference in finding his reincarnation following his death meant he may be the last Dalai lama and that Tibetans could decide to abandon the institution.

A number of young Buddhist monks, including the Karmapa lama, could emerge as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, he said.

Despite frosty relations with Beijing, he said he believes China will change its hardline stance within his lifetime and adopt democratic reforms to safeguard its economic growth.

The Dalai lama will receive the 1.1 million pound Templeton Prize at St Paul's Cathedral in London Monday for his championing of science as a vital element of religious life.