The Dalai Lama has been admitted to hospital in Delhi with a chest infection, an aide said, adding that the 83-year-old Buddhist monk was stable.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, lives in exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala.

Tenzin Taklha, his personal secretary, said the Dalai Lama “felt some discomfort and he was flown to Delhi for a check-up” on Tuesday.

“Doctors have diagnosed him with a chest infection and he is being treated for that. His condition is stable now. He will be treated for two, three days here.”

Many of the up to 100,000 Tibetans living in India fear their fight for a genuinely autonomous homeland would end with the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama said last month it was possible that once he dies his incarnation could be found in India, and warned that any other successor named by China would not be respected.

China, which took control of Tibet in 1950, regards the Nobel peace laureate as a dangerous separatist and says its leaders have the right to approve the Dalai Lama’s successor, as a legacy inherited from China’s emperors.

But many Tibetans – whose tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death – suspect any Chinese role as a ploy to exert influence on the community.