Dalai Lama to visit Sikkim

Unlike in previous years, December, this year will be a hectic month for the people of Sikkim. Just a week after Losoong and Namsoong the tribal New Years followed by Barahimijong a festive occasion for the Mangar community, the people of Sikkim will await the arrival of the Lord of Compassion.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso will be visiting several parts of the state and will attend a host of programmes during his tour from December 15th to 23rd.

The Tibetan spiritual leader had accepted an invitation from the Sikkim government to inaugurate a four-day conference on Brain and Mind, Our Potential for Change: Modern Cognitive Sciences and Eastern Contemplative Traditions, which will be hosted by the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology (NIT) from December 20th to the 22nd.

“The conference is expected to lay the foundations of Sikkim’s efforts to formally introduce moral and ethical subjects in the school curriculum,” said a media release by Pema Wangchuk Dorjee, NIT’s media consultant for the seminar. “The inauguration of the conference by His Holiness is apt because he has always evinced a keen interest in science, and drawing from his advanced understanding of theosophical matters, has often commented that science and spiritualism are not contradictory to each other and could in fact collaborate to explain things more completely. He is a leading proponent of Mind and Life Sciences and has consistently reiterated that complete education requires a sound rooting of students in spiritualism and the concepts of morality and ethics,” he said in the release.

Silkkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has thanked the Dalai Lama for accepting the government’s invitation to visit Sikkim. In his letter, Mr. Chamling has conveyed that the government intends to follow up the conference proceedings by introducing moral ethics as a subject in Sikkim’s schools and colleges.

According to a tentative itinerary prepared by the State Ecclesiastical department, the Dalai Lama will be flying to Pelling in West Sikkim on a chopper on December 15th. He will be making a brief visit to Sikkim’s premier Pemayangste monastery and then reach Tashiding monastery on the same day.

The Sikkim government, the department officials said, is constructing an exclusive retreat for the Dalai Lama at Tashiding monastery for his stay on December 16th and 17th. Tashiding monastery, which belongs to the Nyingmapa School of Buddhism, is considered the most sacred place in Sikkim.

“The Dalai Lama will meditate at a retreat in Tashiding monastery in West Sikkim on December 16th and 17th. The retreat, also called Tsamkhang or meditation centre, is being constructed and should be ready by November. The retreat will be exclusively for His Holiness and the government may later declare it a museum,” said State Ecclesiastical Secretary Tenzing Gelek.

On December 18th, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to depart for Palchen Choling monastery at Ralang in South Sikkim. He will also visit a settlement of the Tibetan community in Rabong, about 14 kms from Ralang. Next morning, the Tibetan master will perform purification prayers and a blessing ceremony of the under-construction Buddha Park at Rabong before flying back to Gangtok. The 135-ft statue of Buddha in meditative posture constructed by the Sikkim Government is aimed at boosting Buddhist pilgrimage tourism in Sikkim.

As per the itinerary, a public teaching from the Dalai Lama is also slated be held at Paljor Stadium in Gangtok on December 21st.

In the meantime, leading exponents of Mind & Life Sciences have confirmed plans to deliver keynote addresses during the science and spirituality conference in Gangtok scheduled from December 20th to 23rd.

“A first of its kind effort to synergise ‘modern cognitive sciences and Eastern contemplative traditions’ and adapt them for school curriculum, the agenda for the conference will be sagaciously outlined by a keynote addresses by Professor Richard J. Davidson and Professor B. Alan Wallace, the former a leading scientist and Director, Centre for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA, and the latter a dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West,” informed NIT’s media consultant.

Mr Dorjee, who is also the Editor of Now, a local English daily opined that the keynote addresses by these two noted scholars should go a long way towards addressing the paradox of addiction, depression and suicides which hold Sikkim in a vice grip despite an environment which would otherwise be conducive to higher happiness and satisfaction quotients. “It was during deliberations over this vexed problem that the Chief Minister of Sikkim directed that an attempt be made to blend modern understanding of mind & life sciences with traditional spirituality to fashion a curriculum for schools which would groom the younger generation with less disturbed minds and more positive outlooks,” he said adding “the conference in December was born out of this commitment and NIT is tasked with the responsibility of putting it together.” He further said that the State Government’s initiative to heal social challenges with the introduction of morals and ethics lessons has already received the endorsement of the Dalai Lama.

An array of other spiritual leaders, scholars and scientists will also be presenting papers at the conference during which themes will range from spirituality, to meditation, to yoga to neuroplasticity to education.