Srinagar/Dharamshala, July 7 -- Thousands of people joined Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, to celebrate his 91st birthday in Leh on Monday even as people across the country and abroad greeted the spiritual leader.

Born on July 6, 1935, in the Taktser village in Tsongkha area of eastern Tibet in Domey province, and named in his childhood as Lhamo Dhondup, the 14th Dalai Lama was recognised as the reincarnation of his predecessor at the age of two.

He became the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in 1940. In accordance with ancient custom, His Holiness forfeited his name Lhamo Thondup and assumed a new name, Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama, then 23-year-old Tenzin Gyatso, fled to India with th...