The Dalai Lama [Images] has followed the lead of Pope Benedict XVI and moved into the world of social networking.

The Tibetan pontiff who already has Facebook and MySpace accounts has joined Twitter, the microblogging service

His alias on Twitter  is @OHHDL, which stands for 'The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,' sent out a welcome note on Saturday.

The OHHDL handles all media pertaining to the Tibetan spiritual leader. A tweet posted on his page reads 'His Holiness thought it was prudent make his office open and assesable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience.'

In just 2 days the twitter account already has about 17000 followers.

Image: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama stoops for a closer look at a laptop to launch the website of Kiran Bedi [Images] (R), India's first woman police officer.

Photograph: Reuters