Dalai Lama congratulates Obama

Dharamsala, Jan 20 (IANS) Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama Tuesday congratulated Barack Obama on his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, Tibet's government-in-exile here said.

'The religious guru, on a visit to international township of Auroville near Puducherry, expressed his deep congratulations and prayers for Obama for success,' Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary at Dalai Lama's office, told IANS.

The Dalai Lama arrived Auroville Tuesday on a two-day visit to the township.

He inaugurated a pavilion of Tibetan culture at Auroville and will deliver discourse on peace and spirituality.

The Dalai Lama had laid the foundation for the pavilion in 1993. This is his third visit to the township.

The Nobel laureate, along with many of his supporters, fled Tibet and took refuge in this Indian hill station in 1959. The Dalai Lama has ever since been heading the Tibetan government-in-exile from here.