By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, November 2: Tibetans are busy preparing to extend a warm and special welcome for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return to Dharamsala from a brief yet, very high-profile visit to United States and Canada.
Tibetans National flags and Buddhist prayers flags are fluttering all along the road in McLeod Ganj leading to His Holiness’ private residence here. Several welcome gates, decked up in traditional Tibetan style with auspicious greetings, and banners welcoming the Tibetan leader are put up all over the place.
The Dalai Lama is arriving after concluding almost a month-long visit to the North American countries. He left Dharamsala, his exile hometown in North India, on October 7.
Tibetans have been overwhelmed by their leader’s wave of high-level visits to Western countries in recent months.
A growing number of western leaders have, in recent months, publicly received the exiled Tibetan leader in official venues ignoring Chinese government’s routinely perverse objections.
The Dalai Lama, revered by Tibetans as their undisputed leader and a symbol of hope of their freedom in the world, was received by the leaders of Canada and the United States last month, and met the Australian prime minister and German and Austrian chancellors earlier this year.
For Tibetans, last few months have been occasions of mass jubilations and festive celebrations accompanied by regular and earnest prayers for the continued well being and long life of their leader.
“We have His Holiness to make us feel proud. It is incredible to believe that we are blessed with such an honorable leader. I don’t know how to put it,” Tsewang, a local Tibetan shop here muses over.
On 17 October, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was presented with the US Congressional Gold Medal at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington by the US President George W Bush that lead to unprecedented celebrations of victory by Tibetans and their supporters around the world.
The United States’ highest civilian honour to the Dalai Lama is seen as one of the most significant recognitions to His Holiness since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. The US honouring even sparked celebrations by Tibetans inside Tibet amid increased security set up and severe restrictions on religious practice in Lhasa (Capital of Tibet) and areas of eastern Tibet.
At the time, a tense atmosphere in Lhasa has been described as similar to ‘martial law’, with increased numbers of troops on the streets and Tibetans prevented from organizing celebrations or, in some cases, even attending monasteries to make offerings, International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) reported.
In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended a warm diplomatic welcome for the Dalai Lama on October 29 in his Parliament Hill Office in Ottawa, irking China one more time.
Meanwhile, Italian news agencies reported Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI would meet the Dalai Lama in a Vatican audience in December.
His Holiness left Canada on Thursday for India and is expected to arrive Saturday in Dharamsala, where Tibetans are planning to receive him in an imposing ceremonial style.
