Dalai Lama health update: How 90-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader is doing after medical crisis | Today’s news
Tibet’s spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, recently faced a health scare. According to the latest update, the 90-year-old underwent a successful left knee replacement surgery and was discharged from Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi on Friday.
Senior consultant at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Dr Rajesh Malhotra, said in a statement: “His Holiness the Dalai Lama underwent successful left knee replacement surgery on Monday, June 8 in New Delhi.”
The statement added: “During his treatment, His Holiness’ personal medical team and the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama remained in close coordination with administrative and medical staff at Apollo Hospitals. His Holiness is stable and expected to make a full recovery. He was discharged on Friday morning, June 12.” This medical update was shared on the spiritual leader’s official X account.
Two years ago, in June 2024, the Dalai Lama underwent successful right knee replacement surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Who will be the next Dalai Lama?
The Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration, Penpa Tsering, answered a question about the next Dalai Lama during an interactive event at Delhi’s India Habitat Center on June 9. When asked by an audience member about China’s claim that they will decide the next Dalai Lama, the head of Tibet’s government-in-exile said, “The Chinese have no right, they are usurping the right to choose the next Dalai Lama. China wants to control everything,” PTI reported.
The Chinese assumption stated that the Dalai Lama is determined to live long and perhaps 130 years, saying: “If His Holiness the Dalai Lama dies, so will the issue of Tibet. According to Sikyong, the process of choosing a successor begins when the Dalai Lama is “ready to leave (the world); it does not start from now.”
Sikyong told PTI, “So I am sending this message to the Chinese people. You who are waiting for the death of the Dalai Lama…. And the (current) Dalai Lama is determined to live long.”
Emphasizing that China has “never used the tools” that can win the hearts and trust of Tibetans, he added: “We will have to see whether communism survives His Holiness the Dalai Lama or whether His Holiness survives communism.
He blamed the Chinese administration, claiming that China’s Ethnic Law was meant to promote only Mandarins and ensure that Tibetan identity was “destroyed”. Criticizing China for its policies, he said: “The Communists always have a very nice name for programs that have a very adverse effect on the people.”
Tibetans living in India will hold a protest march on June 26 to protest China’s latest law, the Law on Ethnic Unity and Promotion of Progress. This is China’s Basic Law on Ethnic Affairs, passed by the Chinese Parliament on March 12 and coming into force on July 1.
