Dalai Lama a hit at IPL match in Dharamsala

DHARAMSALA - Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was the centre of attraction at the Indian Premier League (IPL) match played between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings Sunday in this Himachal Pradesh hill station Sunday.

Dressed in a traditional maroon robe, the Nobel Peace Prize winner spent around an hour watching the Kings XI innings.

Before the match began, the Dalai Lama presented the players of both teams ‘khata’, a traditional white robe given by the Tibetans in honour.

Some of the players, especially Indians, missed no opportunity to seek his blessing by touching his feet.

Accompanied by Priety Zinta, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) president Anurag Thakur, the Dalai Lama, who was the chief guest at the match, enjoyed the game and met dignitaries, including Bollywood actor Kabir Bedi, present there.

He also obliged some of the spectators by allowing them to get themselves photographed with him.

Tenzin Taklha, the joint secretary at the Dalai Lama’s office, told IANS: “His Holiness spent almost an hour at the stadium and he enjoyed the game.”

The HPCA stadium, one of the new venues in the country, is located nearly 4,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by the majestic Dhauladhar ranges of the Himalayas that make it one of the most beautiful grounds in the world.

As the Dalai Lama left the stadium, a TV commentator remarked: “People go to meet the Dalai Lama for peace but I suspect he didn’t find any peace today as after every couple of seconds someone was going to meet him.”

“Today is a very special occasion because we got the public appearance of His Holiness,” a Tibetan supporter said as the Dalai Lama left.

“For us it is undoubtedly an occasion of a spiritual tryst with our guru,” another follower remarked.

Born July 6, 1935, to a family of farmers in a small hamlet in Taktser in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising and has been staying here since.

McLeodganj near here is the abode-in-exile of the Dalai Lama.

A total of 140,000 Tibetans live in exile, over 100,000 of them in different parts of India itself.