Dalai Lama arrives in Ladakh for two-month summer visit

The 14th Dalai Lama arrived in Leh for his annual two-month summer stay after recent medical treatment. He will deliver religious teachings, attend public programmes, and celebrate his 91st birthday while limiting engagements to allow for recovery

Leh: Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama, arrived here on Sunday for his extended 2-month long summer stay in Ladakh region, officials said. Officials added that the 14th Dalai Lama arrived here for his annual extended summer stay, marking the beginning of a two-month visit to the Union Territory.

The visit follows his recent medical treatment in Delhi. During his stay, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to participate in religious teachings, public interactions and special programmes across the region.

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According to officials associated with the visit, the Leh administration, in coordination with the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) and the Ladakh Gonpa Association (LGA), has made elaborate arrangements to facilitate the spiritual leader’s stay and the events planned during the coming weeks.

The Dalai Lama is expected to remain in Ladakh through July and part of August.

While the number of public teachings and audiences is likely to be limited this year in view of his recent knee surgery and the need for adequate rest, the Tibetan spiritual leader is expected to visit Matho village, where he will confer the Yarchos Chenmo teachings.

His 91st birthday, falling on July 6, is also scheduled to be celebrated in Ladakh with religious and cultural programmes. Organisers said detailed schedules of teachings and public events would be announced separately.

The arrival of the Dalai Lama was welcomed by devotees and members of the Buddhist community, who expressed joy over his annual visit to the Himalayan region.

The 14th Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935. His full spiritual name is Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism.

He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.

A belief central to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as well as the institution of the Dalai Lama is that the reincarnated person is a living Bodhisattva, specifically an emanation of Avalokitesvara (in Sanskrit) or Chenrezig (in Tibetan), the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

The Mongolic word ‘dalai’ means ocean. The 14th Dalai Lama is also known to Tibetans as Gyalwa Rinpoche (“The Precious Jewel-like Buddha-Master”).

His devotees, as well as much of the Western world, often call him “His Holiness the Dalai Lama”. He is the leader and a monk of the newest Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.