He is ninety. His knee is shot. On Friday, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader will swap his Himalayan sanctuary in Dharamshala for the stifling heat of New Delhi to get it looked at. His office confirmed the trip on Thursday. It is just another maintenance stop for a man carrying the weight of an entire displaced nation on his shoulders.
His devotees are already praying. They always do when the knives or needles come out. Once the Delhi doctors patch him up, he plans to head to the high-altitude desert of Ladakh by late June. He will stay there a while.
This is not his first bout with joint pain. New York surgeons sliced into that same left knee back in 2024. He brushed it off as “nothing serious” to reporters, but the reality is less stoic. He hobbles. Aides prop him up. For anything resembling a long walk inside his compound, he relies on a golf cart. Time catches up. Even living gods age.
Yet, he plans to stick around. Last year, he claimed he might push past his 130th birthday. He also promised his flock he would reincarnate. That is a massive headache for Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party, which brands him a dangerous separatist, insists they have the sole right to pick his next incarnation. They cite some ancient imperial ritual. The Dalai Lama’s advice to his people? Ignore Beijing’s puppet.
He has been playing this high-stakes game of geopolitical chess since 1959. That was the year he fled Tibet after a bloody, failed rebellion against Chinese rule. He has been in Dharamshala ever since, watching his homeland from across a heavily militarized border. Now, the battle is against his own aging joints.
