Washington: The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has joined micro-blogging service Twitter, attracting nearly 20,000 followers in just two days.

The Dalai Lama’s Twitter feed -- twitter.com/ohhdl -- was launched on Saturday. OHHDL stands for the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- administered by The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the first message read.

It was followed several hours later by another message: “Our office is currently overwhelmed by responses from our first day on Twitter. We will make every effort to answer your questions in time.”

The background for the page includes a quotation from the Dalai Lama: “Each of us has responsibility for all humankind. It is time for us to think of other people as true brothers and sisters and to be concerned for their welfare, with lessening their suffering.”

Twitter claims more than six million users of its service, which allows users to send short messages known as “tweets” of 140 characters or less.