DHARAMSALA (Himachal Pradesh): His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, began a nine-day long special sermon session in Dharamsala on Wednesday (July 17).

           The exiled Tibetan leader held the sermons at he request of a large group of Buddhist devotees from Taiwan, visiting Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. These were the Dalai Lama's first public sermons since he fell ill earlier this year during the annual Kalchakra festival celebrations.

          The Dalai Lama wields considerable influence over Buddhists in Taiwan. The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign to gain autonomy from Chinese rule for his homeland. China took over Tibet in 1950.

           Though in the recent years he has softened the demands for improvished Tibet's independence from China, saying it has much to gain from being part of China, provided the government gave it a meaningful right to preserve its culture, religious freedom and a "high degree of autonomy".

July 18, 2002