Huettenberg (Austria): Austrian dignitaries joined the Dalai Lama for the formal founding of a Tibetan health center in Austria's Carinthia province on Sunday.
Thousands of spectators also attended the cornerstone-laying ceremony, at which the 70-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader expressed the hope that the institution would contribute to making the world a ''multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious unit.''
The southern Austrian town of Huettenberg was the birthplace of the late Heinrich Harrer, the Austrian mountaineer, explorer and writer who had become the Dalai Lama's friend.
''I think his spirit, the strength of his friendship remain very much alive,'' he said of his former mentor.
Also present were Austrian Deputy Chancellor Hubert Gorbach, Joerg Haider, the governor of Carinthia province, and other federal and provincial officials.
The Dalai Lama had fled to Tibet in 1959 following a failed revolt against Chinese rule in his homeland. He now lives in Dharmsala, India, and frequently travels abroad to meet religious and political leaders and lecture on Tibetan Buddhism and religious tolerance.
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