The Dalai Lama on Saturday congratulated Siddaramaiah on becoming the chief minister of Karnataka for the second time.

In a letter sent to Siddaramaiah, the Tibetan spiritual leader said: “Last April marked the 64th anniversary of our life in exile. In order to find a suitable place for resettlement of Tibetans fleeing to India at the time, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had appealed to the chief ministers of different states to provide land.”

The most generous response came from Karnataka’s former chief minister S. Nijalingappa, he said.

“Subsequently, as you know, more than 30,000 Tibetans were settled in Karnataka in the 1960s, the largestgroup of Tibetans in exile. I remain grateful to the stateof Karnataka and in August 2018, took part in a special function in Bangalore to thank the state and its people for their friendship and generous support,” the Dalai Lama said.

“In addition to setting up five residential settlements in Karnataka that allowed Tibetan communities to be rehabilitated, I am proud that the state is also where manyof our major monastic centres of learning were re-established,” the spiritual leader said.

The Dalai Lama expressed his gratitude to the people of Karnataka and its government for “the warm and friendly support they have provided to Tibetans during these critical times”.