The Dalai Lama left a New Delhi hospital Friday after three days of treatment for a chest infection, but the 83-year-old will need several days of rest before returning to his Himalayan base, his spokesman said.
The Buddhist monk, Tibetan spiritual leader and thorn in China’s side was admitted to the Max hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday. In 1959, at the age of 23, he fled the Tibetan capital Lhasa and across the frozen Himalayan border, disguised as a soldier, as Chinese troops poured into the region to crush an uprising.
But he has also drawn the fury of an increasingly assertive China, branding him a “wolf in a monk’s robe” and accusing him of trying to split the nation. His admission to hospital this week, which attracted widespread media interest and a flood of wishes of good will on social media, also served as a reminder that the question of his succession is far from clear.