Dalai Lama hospitalized in Bombay

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jan 27, 2002 | After illness forced the Dalai Lama to miss several special prayer sessions during the week, the Tibetan Buddhist leader was admitted Sunday to a hospital for treatment of a lump in his stomach.

Looking weak but flashing a broad smile, the 66-year-old got out of his car and walked a short distance into Bombay's Lilawati Hospital, supported by his aides.

"The Dalai Lama is cheerful and talking to his associates," Prakash Mhatre, a director at Lilawati Hospital, said later.

Mhatre said doctors were taking X-rays and conducting ultrasound and blood tests. He said test results were expected Monday.

Ill health forced the Dalai Lama to sit out most of his engagements at special prayers called Kalchakra, or Wheel of Time, when the ceremonies began last Monday, because he had been advised to rest for three days. The rituals were postponed until next winter.

On Thursday, he also postponed his teachings before tens of thousands of followers at Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred worship ceremony. He said he would not be able to sustain the rituals, which require him to sit still for at least five hours.

He underwent a medical checkup at the same hospital in early December and all tests came back normal, Mhatre said.

The spiritual leader had been complaining of abdominal pain and exhaustion and was examined by a team of doctors in a Buddhist monastery in Bodhgaya, a complex of temples in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. It then was decided he would fly to Bombay.

A member of the medical team, A.M. Rai, said the Dalai Lama had a lump in his stomach, but gave no further details.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 with thousands of supporters after a failed uprising against China. Since then, he has headed a government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his nonviolent struggle against Chinese rule.

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