Dalai Lama turns 77, sparks celebrations in Dharamsala

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Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, turned 77 on Friday.

Scores of his followers prayed for his well being at the Lha Ghyal Ri Buddhist temple here.

The Tibetan cabinet and parliament issued statements on the occasion, appealing to the Tibetans to preserve their cultural heritage. The statement also expressed gratitude to the people of India for their help.

Speaking to the reporters, Secretary, Department of Religion and Culture, D.N. Chodak, said that occasion was significant as it was on his birthday that the Dalai Lama was felicitated with the Templeton Award.

"We are celebrating it (the birthday ) more grandly because on this very occasion, he was awarded the Templeton award, and also it marks a kind of milestone in his political career," he said.

Nobel laureate the Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935, at Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, and was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso.