Dalai Lama prays for Leh, Tibet cloudburst victims

DHARAMSALA - Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama Saturday prayed for the victims of flash floods in Jammu and Kashmir’s Leh town and Zhouqu county in China, an aide said here.

Expressing his distress, the Nobel laureate participated in a mass prayer organised at the Tsuglagkhang temple at McLeodganj. He also offered condolences to the surviving family members.

“Hundreds of monks and nuns participated in the special prayer session,” Tenzin Taklha, the joint secretary at the Dalai Lama’s office, told IANS.

He said the Dalai Lama also prayed for victims of natural disasters in Pakistan and Russia.

“His Holiness also prayed for preserving the ecology and expressed concern over natural disasters in Pakistan (floods) and Russia (forest fires),” he added.

The Dalai Lama, along with many of his supporters, fled Tibet and took refuge in this Indian hill station in 1959. He has ever since been heading the Tibetan government-in-exile from here.