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The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader long exiled from China, is seeking to visit the Tibetan region rocked by a deadly earthquake this week.

In a statement issued Saturday from Dharamsala, the northern Indian town where he lives, the religious leader said the devastated region is where he was born and that he wants to go there to help people cope with the tragedy.

“To fulfill the wishes of many of the people there, I am eager to go there myself to offer them comfort,” said the Dalai Lama, who went into exile in 1959 after an aborted Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule.

“The Tibetan community in exile would like to offer whatever support and assistance it can towards the relief work. We hope to be able to do this through the proper and appropriate channels as soon as possible.”

The magnitude 6.9 quake struck the country’s Tibetan region on Wednesday. Rescuers have been working around the clock to pull survivors from the rubble.

The death toll from the earthquake reached 1,484 late Saturday, according to relief officials quoted by China’s official Xinhua news agency. Xia Xueping, a rescue official, said 312 remain missing and 12,088 were injured, with 1,394 of them in serious condition.

The powerful quake struck the impoverished county of Yushu in China’s Qinghai province. It toppled about 15,000 homes in and around Yushu, and caused more than 100,000 people to flee the area.

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Article courtesy cnn.com