Dalai Lama Arrives in Sikkim after 13 Years

GANTOK:
Tibetan spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, arrived here on Monday morning for a three-day visit to Sikkim after a gap of 13 years.

He will impart teachings on the ”Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas” during his stay in the Himalayan state.

The Dalai Lama landed at the Libing army helipad around 10.30 am in East Sikkim where he was received by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang.

He was also accorded a grand welcome by monks of various monasteries in the state with a traditional Buddhist ritual of dance and prayer known as ‘Sherbang’. Some members of the exiled Tibetan Parliament, Tibetan Settlement Office and Local Tibetan Assembly were also present to greet him.

The 87-year-old Dalai Lama went to a hotel in Gangtok and hundreds of people queued up on both sides of the highway from Deorali to Zero Point to get a glimpse of the spiritual leader.

He will impart teachings on the ”Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas” on Tuesday at Paljor Stadium around 50 km from the India-China border at Nathula. ”Around 40,000 devotees will attend the event at Paljor Stadium to get blessings from the Dalai Lama,” Gangtok SP Tenzing Loden Lepcha said. Dalai Lama had last visited Sikkim in 2010. He will also virtually lay the foundation stones of Karmapa Park project at Rumtek and Gyalwa Lhatsun Chenpo statue at Simmik Khamdong constituency in Gangtok district, officials said.

He is scheduled to stay in Gangtok till Thursday morning when he will leave for Salugara in Siliguri, West Bengal. The Dalai Lama’s visit to Sikkim in October had been cancelled due to a flash flood that claimed the lives of scores of people and displaced thousands.