By DILIP GANGULY

Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- The Dalai Lama on Tuesday began a three-day celebration of his 60th birthday that was tightly monitored by India for comments about China's occupation of his native Tibet.

Dozens of plainclothes policemen walked among the 400 people attending the celebration at New Delhi's Ashok Hotel convention hall to report any anti-Chinese sentiment.

Although India has given the Dalai Lama political asylum for decades, it recognizes Chinese sovereignty over Tibet and discourages the Dalai Lama from being openly critical of China. The Dalai Lama fled his Himalayan homeland during a failed Tibetan uprising in 1959, nine years after China invaded and annexed Tibet. Since then, he has lived in India with about 120,000 other Tibetans whose families fled to escape successive Chinese crackdowns. He received the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. The Dalai Lama turns 60 on Thursday. The spiritual leader of 6 million Tibetan Buddhists as well as other Buddhists, he presides over a government-in-exile in Dharmsala, 250 miles north of New Delhi.

He told the Hindustan Times newspaper in an interview Monday that he was willing to relent on his demand for independence for Tibet if China promises autonomy and to protect the Tibetan culture and religion. China says it will negotiate only if the Dalai Lama publicly admits that Tibet is part of China.