Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik took to Twitter sharing a sand art he made at Puri beach in Odisha wishing Dalai Lama on his 85th birthday. The artwork is a smiling face of the spiritual leader made with sand. His followers around the world are celebrating his birthday with varying celebrations virtually. Although due to COVID-19 pandemic, celebrations have been cut short, his followers have arranged varying celebratory events online. Sudarsan Pattnaik shares the photo of the sand art with the caption, "A very warm birthday wishes to His Holiness the 14th #DalaiLama. On this special auspicious day of his 85th birthday .One of my SandArt at puri beach in Odisha." Dalai Lama Quotes With HD Images: Celebrate 14th Dalai Lama’s 85th Birthday With His Powerful, Kind and Inspirational Thoughts and Sayings.

Dalai Lama's followers began the global virtual celebrations to dedicate him the 'Year of Gratitude'. The spiritual leader in a video message told his followers that large gatherings or big celebrations cannot live because of restrictions due to the pandemic. He said, "And it is not necessary either. However, if you want to celebrate my birthday, I would like to ask you to recite the Mani mantra (Om Mani Padme Hung), at least a thousand times. The reason for my asking this is that we Tibetans have a unique connection with Avalokiteshvara."

Sudarsan Pattnaik Creates Sand Art Wishing Dalai Lama on His Birthday:

The 14th Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935, at Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet. He was recognised at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He fled Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959. Since then, he is in exile pushing for autonomy for Tibet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 06, 2020 01:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).