Dalai Lama arrives in Bodh Gaya

The Dalai Lama returns after prayers at Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya on Monday. (AP)

Gaya, Jan. 4: The Dalai Lama arrived in Bodh Gaya amid tight security today to a traditional welcome by his followers.

The men and women, attired in multi-coloured robes, danced to the beat of drums as they celebrated the arrival of their spiritual leader to the seat of Buddha’s enlightenment this afternoon.

Even as his followers danced, a few metres to the south-east, a group of six monks sat or lay on the ground — virtually unnoticed on the fourth day of their indefinite hunger strike.

The protesting monks are demanding total Buddhist control over the Mahabodhi temple, the most sacred Buddhist shrine. However, much to their disappointment, the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has consistently avoided taking their side in the controversy.

At the Gaya airport, the temporal and spiritual leader of the Buddhists and head of the Tibetan government in exile was received by Ogyen Trinley Dorje better known as Karmapa, the head of one of the sects of Tibetan Buddhists, and Gaya district magistrate Sanjay Kumar.

Soon after his arrival in Bodh Gaya, the Dalai Lama retired to his suite in the Tibetan monastery, where a special lift has been installed to take him to his second floor apartment.

His followers lined both sides of the road and clapped and waved as the spiritual leader’s motorcade passed by.

The Dalai Lama reciprocated with a smile and waved back once in a while.

After resting for an hour or so, the Dalai Lama went to the Mahabodhi Temple, about 200 metres to the south-east of the Tibetan monastery.

Once inside the shrine, he offered prayers before moving to the majestic and imposing Peepal tree.

Legend has it that it was under this tree that the wandering prince Gautam attained divinity and became Buddha, the enlightened one, 2,500 years ago.

Thereafter, the Dalai Lama unveiled a work of art depicting the different phases of Buddha’s life — including his birth, marriage, renunciation of the palace, continuous meditations, enlightenment, preachings and final salvation (death). A sculptor from Orissa had engraved Buddha’s life on sandstone.

Afterwards, the spiritual leader formally inaugurated a prayer wheel in the shrine complex.

He also inaugurated a multimedia museum located on the other side of the Buddhist shrine.

For four days, beginning Tuesday, the Dalai Lama would be delivering special sermons on different aspects of Buddha’s teachings at the ongoing Gelgupa Monlam Puja being held in the Kalchakra Maidan.

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