Dalai Lama Gets Stirring Welcome In South India For Extended Stay

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:53 +0000
World

By Pema Ngodup, Dickey Kundol and Tenzin Dhonyoe

The Dalai Lama on Sunday received a stirring welcome in South India, where more than 10,000 ethnic Tibetans lined the streets to greet the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader as he arrived for an extended stay at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Bylakuppe.

It was his first visit to the Bylakuppe Tibetan Settlement in the Indian state of Karnataka — the largest Tibetan settlement in the world outside Tibet — in over seven years. An estimated 70,000 Tibetans live in the community, which was established on land leased by the state government for Tibetans who resettled in India after 1959.

That was the year the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India alongside thousands of Tibetans after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The trip also marked the Dalai Lama’s first domestic travel within India after his return to his residence in Dharamsala in the northern part of the county in late August 2024, following a two-month stay in the United States, where he underwent a successful knee replacement surgery in New York.

The visit comes as the Dalai Lama, 89, tries to allay concerns over his general health amid questions about his successor. The Chinese government insists it will select the 15th Dalai Lama, though Tibetan Buddhists believe in the reincarnation of their spiritual leaders.The Dalai Lama, who has said he expects to live to be over 100 years old to fulfill the wishes of the Tibetan people, has stated that his incarnation could be found in India.

“Today, I have come to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery which was founded by Gyalwa Gendun Drub, the First Dalai Lama,” he said, at a reception ceremony in the monastery. “As his successor, I feel happy and honored to be here today,”

The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, known as the seat of the Panchen Lama, was founded in 1447 in Shigatse, Tibet, by the first Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Gendun Drub. After China’s occupation of Tibet, the monastery was re-established in Bylakuppe, South India, in 1972 by senior monks under the guidance of the Dalai Lama.

“In Tibet, the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was renowned for the quality of the monks’ studies of Buddhist philosophy and logic,” he said. “It is one of Tibet’s most important monasteries,” the Dalai Lama said.

The exact duration of the Dalai Lama’s “extended stay” in South India has not been disclosed.

Local Tibetan officials told RFA that the primary purpose of his visit is to rest and enjoy the warmer climate of South India in the winter, and that, as such, no major teachings have, as yet, been planned.

However, from Wednesday onwards, public blessings for the Tibetan people are expected to be held three times a week — every from Monday, Wednesday and Friday — with the initial rounds to focus on Tibetans aged 80 and above, according to the Dalai Lama’s office.

**Rousing welcome**

The Dalai Lama left his residence in Dharamsala on Jan. 3 for an overnight stay in the Indian capital New Delhi, from where he made a journey to Bangalore the following day. There, hundreds of Tibetan professionals, students and businessmen dressed in their traditional best greeted him with incense, flowers and silk scarves.

On Jan. 5, the Dalai Lama flew by helicopter from Bangalore to the Bylakuppe settlement. All along the more than 5-kilometer (3-mile) stretch of road leading to the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, thousands of Tibetans carrying traditional silk scarves and incense welcomed him amid the sounds of cymbals, drums and horns, as monks and nuns chanted.

“All of us residents of the Tibetan settlements in South India are very fortunate that His Holiness is here,” said Namgyal, who hails from the Doeguling Tibetan Settlement in Mundgod, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Bylakuppe.

“Even though I’m old, I’ve made the journey to be here to satisfy my heart’s desire to see His Holiness,” he said.

Tsewang Dolma, an elderly woman from the Tibetan settlement in Hunsur, over 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Bylakuppe, said she was elated about the visit.

“I feel very emotional and am almost tearing up,” she told Radio Free Asia, while holding a bouquet of flowers to welcome the Dalai Lama. “All I pray for is that he lives a long, long life.”

**Role of Buddhist monasteries**

The Dalai Lama’s last visit to Bylakuppe was in December 2017, during which he gave Buddhist teachings at Sera Jey and Sera Mey monasteries.

In his address at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, where the heads of all the different Tibetan monastic institutions were gathered, the Dalai Lama emphasized the critical importance of monasteries in serving as “centers of learning” for Buddhist study and practice.

“As I have always advised, the principal purpose of a monastery is to serve as a center of learning where monks and nuns have the opportunity to study and put into practice the Buddha’s teachings,” he said.

“Members of all the monastic institutions should strive to uphold the Buddha’s teachings, particularly in this degenerate age,” the Dalai Lama said, while noting the growing interest in Buddhism in China and other regions.

“Today, many people around the world who are not Buddhists are taking an interest in the Buddha’s teachings,” he added. “These include scientists who value the Buddhist tradition’s emphasis and use of reason and logic.”