'I'm No Healer. It's Been Proven'

November 21st 2009

New Delhi, 22, November 2009 (By Jaya Shroff Bhalla, Hindustan Times) - 'I am not a healer and if somebody says, they are wrong. And now it is scientifically proven.'

The 14^th Dalai Lama, considered the incarnation of the god of compassion by over five million Tibetans, sounded downright human as he talked to reporters after inaugurating a metabolic and bariatric surgery institute at Max Hospital in Saket on Saturday.

'Last year, when my gall bladder was making me very sick, I had to seek help from Dr. Pradeep Chowbey, the surgeon at Ganga Ram Hospital who tortured me for three hours in the operation theatre,' he quipped.

The Dalai Lama had undergone a gall baldder surgery on October 10 last year. 'Although a part of my body is missing, I feel so much better now.'

The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, His Holiness, was in his characteristic jovial spirit. Taking a lighthearted dig at traditional cures, he said 'The local Tibetan medicine, which I took for almost 20 years, failed to cure me. My surgery proved the Dalai Lama has no healing powers. I am no healer,' he said.

He praised modern day medicine, which he said has cures for everything. 'So far, there has been no medicine, no surgery for inner peace,' he said.

'There is a need to make more medical facilities available for millions of people in rural areas of India. Big private hospitals should help extend services to villages, where people have no help,' said the Dalai Lama.

'While spirituality heals, it cannot be the only medicine. For a billion population, India still needs to develop a lot of facilities, particularly in rural areas.'

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