Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Monday termed himself as a proud citizen of the Himachal Pradesh and student of the rich Indian tradition to express gratitude to the state government and its people.

In a video message on the occasion of ‘Thank You Himachal Pradesh’ event, he said India was the world’s largest democratic nation with a rich civilisational history which he found was, worth sharing with the world.

“I always refer to Himachal Chief Minister and Governor as My Governor and My Chief Minister because now for nearly 59 years, I have lived here. In the summer of 1960, I reached here so I consider myself as a citizen of this state,” he said in the video message.

Dalai Lama said in the last few decades, he really enjoyed staying in Kangra district. “Nowadays, I have found as a result of visiting different places and countries and then through discussions with scientists and educationists, I realised, ‘Oh, today’s world is passing through some kind of emotional crisis’.

In that situation, I think ancient Indian knowledge of how to tackle our emotions is something very relevant,” he said.

In the last few decades, I always try to make contribution, ultimately for humanity.

As far as India is concerned, the only question is of revival because these are not an alien concept. The knowledge which we have kept and practice have all come from India. Therefore, I feel it is quite easy to revive this ancient Indian knowledge about our mind and emotion, he said.

He said historically already there are some Buddhist communities in Lahaul and Spiti areas. During recent interaction with leaders, I told them the time has come that in order to revive the ancient Indian knowledge in modern India, we should start some program; firstly some teachers training. Here in Dharamsala, we can easily arrange and that is part of our gratitude to this state, he said.

“I think India’s civilisation among the Chinese civilisation and Egyptian civilisation, is a very sophisticated civilisation. I also feel proud as a student of this ancient knowledge and so should everyone,” he added.