His Holiness Arrives at Amravati Amidst Great Fanfare
4 January 2005, 2:30 PM
Dharamshala: His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived at Amravat this morning at 9:30 AM where, the state education minister, Central tourism minister Mrs. Renuka Choudary, Kalon Lobsang Nyima, Kalon for the Religion and Culture of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), Guntur district heads and over 6000 people received him.
The local people showed great respect to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and welcomed him in their own traditional way. They put up Andhra-style drawings on the ground and set flowers on the roadside to welcome His Holiness.
Over 50,000 people have already arrived at Amravati and there are many more people still coming to attend the teachings. Till yesterday, around 5000 people from Tibet and 224 foreigners from 32 different countries had registered and arrived at Amravati.
The Japan-based Busshokia Foundation, sponsor of Kalachakra 2006, hosted a luncheon reception to some important guests including, Indian shipment and development minister Mr. Javi Reddy, state finance minister, co-operative minister, tourism minister and five other MLAs, this afternoon. From the Tibetan side, the invitees were Kalon Lobsang Nyima, Kasur Kelsang Yeshi, director of the Norbulinka Institute and other eight Kasurs of the CTA.
On 3 January, His Holiness the Dalai Lama consecrated the construction site of a government school in Nagarjunasagar and planted a tree on the site. In a short press meeting at the place, His Holiness emphasised on the importance of modern education in today’s world.
In the afternoon, His Holiness the Dalai Lama left for a pilgrimage to Nagarjunakonda by boat where the Kalon Lobsang Nyima, central tourism minister and over 1000 people received him.
Nagarjunakonda, discovered in 1926, is the place where the great Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna (Gonpo Lhudup) founded the university to study Buddhism. The great stupa also called the Mahachaitya, in Nagarjunakonda, contains the sacred relics of the Buddha.
In Nagarjunakonda, His Holiness visited the museum in which excavated remains of the Buddhist civilisation has been reconstructed and carefully preserved.
His Holiness also gave an oral transmission of Nagarjuna’s fundamental wisdom (Tsawai Sherab) at the place. His Holiness said that the most effective way to understand Buddhism is to study the teachings of the Buddha.
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.)