Dalai Lama Twitter Updates Spiritual Followers
Tina Hodges ("NewsOXY," February 24, 2010)

Dharamsala, India - Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, has a new Twitter page with more than 82,000 followers.

Dalai Lama laughed at the idea of communicating on the Twitter social networking service. The Tibetan spiritual leader now has more than 82,000 followers. However, the service could provide him with a powerful communications tool.

Twitter is used by hundreds of millions of people as a regular tool. Dalai Lama's page was set up by his office on Monday. There was one post that mentioned he would be in Los Angeles.

Six other Tweets since then provide links to interviews, photos and a Webcast. There is even some media content available where he met about 4,000 people at Nova Southeastern University. So far, the Dalai Lama hasn't posted any personal messages.

His Holiness And Latest Reincarnation Of Spiritual leaders

The Dalai Lama is a lineage of religious officials of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The term "Lama" refers to Tibetan Buddhist teachers. In religious terms, the Dalai Lama is believed by his devotees to be the rebirth of a long line of tulkus who descend from the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

Traditionally, His Holiness is thought of as the latest reincarnation of a series of spiritual leaders who have chosen to be reborn in order to enlighten others. The Dalai Lamas were the directors of the Tibetan Government between the 17th century and 1959. The term "Dalai" means "Ocean" in Mongolian, and is a translation of the Tibetan name "Gyatso," while "Lama" is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word "guru."

Tweets and Followers

Twitter is a free social networking service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers. These subscribers are known as followers.

Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Since late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors. All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as "SMS of the Internet." The use of Twitter's application programming interface for sending and receiving text messages by other applications often eclipses direct use of Twitter.

Twitter began in a brainstorming session that was held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. During that meeting, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using a SMS service to communicate with a small group. While the Dalai Lama might not personally use Twitter, his office can use it for links to websites that contain updated information and literature.

Tina Hodges.