The Dalai Lama inaugurated a hospital on Monday, the second day of his visit to Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. After his harsh words against China, soon after his arrival in the state on Sunday, the Tibetan spiritual leader reserved Monday for his disciples.
Offices, shops, business establishments, and restaurants and hotels shut down in the Dalai Lama’s honour. People gathered at the Yid-Gha-Choezin prayer hall grounds where the Dalai Lama, seated on a raised decorative platform, gave a religious discourse in Tibetan in the morning.
Asking the community to work for removing evils like superstition and bring “positive change” in society, the Dalai Lama said: “Let us be Buddhists of the 21st century, acting as harbingers of positive change.” He spoke about the virtues of Buddhism and said there was a need to introspect so that reforms can take place at the individual and community level.
A senior monk from the Tawang monastery translated the sayings to the language of the local Mompa tribals. There is a lot of similarity between the two languages. Also present were Tibetans living in Tawang for decades, and they chanted Tibetan hymns.
Before arriving for the public gathering, the Dalai Lama inaugurated a wing of a hospital for which he had donated Rs20 lakh during his visit to Tawang in 2003. Chief minister Khandu Dorji had used the completion of the hospital wing as an excuse to get the Dalai Lama to Tawang. The monastery town is also Dorji’s constituency.
Since the Dalai Lama’s arrival, Dorji has been by his side all the time, holding his hand and helping him at every step. Some believe Dorji has scored huge political dividends from the visit.
“It is only because of our chief minister’s persistent efforts that his holiness has come to Arunachal. China has always protested against his visits, but this time, with tensions between India and China at a high, we thought he would never come,” said Karma Shering, a government school teacher. “I am glad the Indian government did not give in to Chinese pressure and gave him (the Dalai Lama) the green signal to come here.”
A Mompa woman, bent with age, said she had trekked for two days to receive the Dalai Lama’s blessings. “I can now die in peace,” she said, recalling that she was a child when the spiritual leader first crossed over to India as a young man. She described the excitement she had felt on seeing him while her father carried her on his back.
At the prayer grounds, the Dalai Lama also planted a sapling and distributed 1,700 “blessed” saplings to his disciples.
