Tibet supporters in India mark 60 years since uprising

Huge crowds gathered at the Dalai Lama’s temple in India Sunday to commemorate 60 years since the failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that drove the spiritual leader into exile. Supporters of the 83-yearold peace icon chanted and prayed at the Buddhist shrine in mountainous Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama established a government-in-exile after fleeing a deadly Chinese crackdown in Tibet in 1959.

Devotees in the Indian hill station the Dalai Lama has called home for six decades waved Tibet’s colourful “snow lion” flag, which China has outlawed as a symbol of separatism. Some had “Free Tibet” painted on their faces along with the colours and distinct golden sun of the iconic flag. “This is a proud day,” Lhakpa Tsering, a Tibetan living in exile in India, told AFP in Dharamsala.

“Sixty years we’ve been in exile. Still, our struggle is young and fresh and strong, so we can give a message to China that until Tibetans remain, our struggle will never end.”