The Dalai Lama turned 75 on Tuesday, a milestone in the life of the Tibetan leader who was recognised as the fourteenth Dalai Lama when he was just two years old.

At an age when most others are putting their feet up, the Dalai Lama keeps up a globe-trotting schedule that would tire someone half his age. In an average year, he is away from home for about half the time and in the past 12 months has visited France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, the United States (twice), Taiwan and most recently Japan.