Dirang: Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama today consecrated Thubsung Dhargyalling Monastery in Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh and conferred the Avalokiteshvara permission at the Monastery this morning.
The ceremony was conducted in the presence of Governor of AP PB Acharya, Chief Minister Pema Khandu, state Assembly speaker TN Thongdok, Chief Secretary Shakuntala Gamlin and other dignitaries of West Kameng and Itanagar.
Nearly twenty thousand devotees, including devotees from neighbouring Bhutan, monks and nuns, members of Tibetan community from Dirang, Itanagar greeted the Tibetan spiritual leader at the Thubsung Dhargyaling Monastery.
Tulku Thupten Rinpoche gave the welcome address and made mandala offering to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In his inaugural remarks, Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, PN Acharya, said, “It gives me great pleasure to welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I apologise for not being to receive you when you first arrived in Arunachal Pradesh. Your presence has given us the strength that we have to march along with prosperity with spiritual content. I again bow my head and request you even at young 81 man who can move thousands of thousand, lakhs and lakhs want to hear you and see, please give us time. You can be part of the preaching, you are the living god, living saint.”
Tenzing Norbu Thongdok, Speaker of Legislative Assembly In his welcome speech, spoke of the divine feeling of goodness and human values that His Holiness brought to the occasion. “I feel it is a great opportunity to speak before the Dalai Lama. I take this opportunity to welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama in West Kameng district and at the same time, I also would like to thank on behalf four MLAs from this district for His Holiness’ blessing and words of wisdom to the people of west kameng district. I feel lucky that with certain change of program, His Holiness travelled by road, covering from east to west of the state and in that way, we have received your blessing.
“Before His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived here in India in 1959, Buddhism was not so much practised. we had very few lamas here, at least not in my region. It was very difficult to even dispose off our dear and dead ones in absence of lamas for ritual performance. But after your visit to Arunachal Pradesh since 1983, people have taken up really towards the practice of real Buddhism in our region. An institution like this has come up. This is how you have been able to influence us,” the speaker said.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama began his talk by addressing his followers and devotees as brothers and sisters, “I always emphasise that we are same human being; same brothers and sisters. If we emphasise that, then there is no basis of bullying, cheating, harming or killing each other.
“All religion is the ultimate source of compassion, self-discipline, tolerance, however, due to too much self-centered attitude, short-sightedness, religion also causing violence and division today. it is really sad,” His Holiness said.
His Holiness warned that if the present situation continues, the 21st century will also be a miserable one with more gap between poor and rich, more violence and discrimination.
Calling on the scores of his followers to imbibe the sense of brotherhood, mutual respect and sense of concern for the wellbeing of others, he said, “Since we are part of humanity, we cannot ignore these things. We cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of others. We are a social animal, each individual’s future depends on rest of humanity. Humanity thrives in peace and happiness, all Individuals will reap maximum benefit,” he said.
His Holiness spoke with great concern while recalling his encounter with road construction workers on his way to Bomdila. “When I was coming by road, these road workers were very poor with no education. Although these days, there are more and more students, that’s a good sign but still, we have to work more rigorously to think of these poorer sections. They are same human being, they also have same right to live happy life.”
However, His Holiness said seeing the poverty and suffering of the people gave him an opportunity to think of compassion. “In Tibetan, we have a saying that means blessing in disguise. From Guwahati, my chartered plane, there were some problems and so fortunately because of the problem in the plane, I travelled by road and I was able to meet with road workers and people. Seeing them really gave some opportunity to think of compassion. I have nothing to help them but only offer prayers.”
After concluding the inaugural ceremony of Thubsung Dhargyaling Monastery, His Holiness gave teachings on Geshe Langri Thangpa’s Eight verses of Training the Mind & Guru Yoga, followed by conferment of the Avalokiteshvara permission.