GANGTOK: After a thirteen-year absence, the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, arrived here on Monday morning for a three-day visit to Sikkim. While he is in the Himalayan state, he will give lectures on the “Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas”. At approximately 10.30 am, the Dalai Lama touched down at the Libing army helipad in East Sikkim, where he was greeted by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang. Monks from different monasteries in the state also gave him a warm welcome, performing a traditional Buddhist ritual called “Sherbang,” which involves prayer and dancing. He was greeted by a few representatives of the Local Tibetan Assembly, Tibetan Settlement Office, and the exiled Tibetan Parliament.Hundreds of people lined up on both sides of the highway from Deorali to Zero Point to see the 87-year-old Dalai Lama when he visited a hotel in Gangtok. On Tuesday, he will give lectures at Paljor Stadium, which is about 50 km from the India-China border in Nathula, on the “Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas”. According to Gangtok SP Tenzing Loden Lepcha, “about 40,000 devotees will attend the event at Paljor Stadium to receive blessings from the Dalai Lama.” The Dalai Lama last travelled to Sikkim in 2010. According to officials, he will also figuratively lay the cornerstones for the Karmapa Park project at Rumtek and the Gyalwa Lhatsun Chenpo statue at the Simmik Khamdong constituency in the Gangtok district. He will remain in Gangtok until Thursday morning, at which point he will travel to Salugara, a town in Siliguri, West Bengal. The October visit of the Dalai Lama to Sikkim was cancelled because of a flash flood that left thousands of people homeless and claimed many lives.
