MUMBAI, India (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama left hospital in Mumbai on Monday morning after being treated for abdominal pain, smiling and waving to waiting photographers.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader put his hands togetherin a traditional greeting before getting into a whiteAmbassador car and being driven away to a hotel, accompanied bypolice vehicles.
"He is feeling good and he will be resting for the next fewdays," his aide Chhime Chhoekyapa told Reuters, adding that theDalai Lama would stay in Mumbai for a while.
The Dalai Lama was admitted to hospital last week aftercomplaining of "fatigue" and cancelling two foreign trips.
After he was admitted, doctors said the 73-year-old hadabdominal discomfort but there was no cause for concern.
In recent years, doctors have carried out more frequentmedical checks to ensure that the Dalai Lama was in goodhealth, but the spiritual leader said last November theexaminations showed he was "good for another few decades".
He took part in a fast for peace on Saturday from hishospital bed, aides said, along with thousands of Tibetans inother parts of India.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner had recently returned from an11-day visit to France. The visit focused on lectures onBuddhism, but he also criticised Chinese policies in Tibet.
Many Tibetans fear the death of the current Dalai Lamawould be a major setback in their fight for more autonomywithin China or independence, creating a leadership vacuum thatBeijing is expected to exploit.
In a bid to circumvent this, the Dalai Lama has longsuggested his reincarnation would be found outside China.
He has also suggested Tibetans should start to consider howthey wanted to address the succession issue, perhaps byelecting a senior lama to succeed him or doing away with theinstitution altogether.
China maintains that the next Dalai Lama will be born inTibet and chosen by them.
The Dalai Lama, who was recognized at the age of two as thereincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, has been living in exilesince 1959 after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chineserule.
(Reporting by Arko Datta and Nishika Patel and AbhishekMadhukar in Dharamsala; Editing by Simon Denyer and Paul Tait)
