Life in India has been very meaningful: Dalai

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New Delhi: Expressing gratitude towards India for 50 years of support, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Tuesday said life in India has been very meaningful and he has gathered experience from various religions here.

"I personally think my life in India has been very meaningful and I have gathered experience from followers of other traditions like Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism," said the temporal head of Tibetans.

‘We killed all Chinese soldiers along the route’

The Dalai Lama had escaped from the Norbulingka Palace in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on the night of March 17, 1959, after a failed uprising against the Chinese communist regime.

He reached India after a 14-day trek and has been in the country since then.

He visited eight places of worship in the capital as part of his 'Pray for India' mission to spread communal harmony and secularism.

The Dalai Lama called himself a son of India and praised the "non-sectarian principles" of the country.

"The non-sectarian principles are very much alive in this country. Fifty years ago, I came to India as a 24-year-old homeless refugee and have been greatly inspired since then by great leaders like (first prime minister) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru," he said.

Leaving Tibet in 1959 was the right decision: Dalai Lama

"I call myself a son of India. Over the years Tibetans have developed very close ties with the country," he said.

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