Dalai Lama undergoes surgery

2008-10-10 08:46

New Delhi - Indian doctors performed keyhole surgery on the Dalai Lama to remove gallstones on Friday at a New Delhi hospital, aides to the Tibetan spiritual leader said.

"Doctors successfully removed the gall bladder stones of His Holiness," the Dalai Lama's spokesperson Tenzin Takhla told AFP.

The procedure was swift, simple and "everything went without a hitch", Takhla said, adding that the 73-year-old Buddhist leader should be discharged within a day or two.

The keyhole procedure, or laparoscopy, involved using a thin, lighted tube with a miniature video camera to enable doctors to magnify and see the location of the organs and any stones.

The Dalai Lama was hospitalised on Thursday for medical tests after a bout of abdominal pain. A similar episode in August had forced the 73-year-old monk to cancel his engagements and rush to a hospital in Mumbai.

Although he was released from hospital on September 1 after four days of tests, his office last month also cancelled a planned tour to Germany and Switzerland in October due to health reasons.

In the weeks preceding his illness, the Dalai Lama, a 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, had pursued a hectic international itinerary as he campaigned for improved human rights in Tibet while China hosted the Olympic Games.

The charismatic Buddhist fled to India in 1959 following a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule and has since lived in the northern Indian hilltop town of Dharamshala, where the Tibetan exile government is based.

- AFP