Pema Khandu to write to Centre seeking Bharat Ratna for Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India in 1959 after the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
A file image of Dalai Lama. (Photo: 'X')
New Delhi, July 10: Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu on Wednesday said that Dalai Lama should be honoured with the Bharat Ratna. He further mentioned that he will write to the Central Government to recommend India’s highest civilian award for the Tibetan spiritual leader.
In an interview with PTI Videos on Tuesday, Khandu also said that Beijing has no locus standi in the selection of the next Dalai Lama since Tibetan Buddhism is not even practised in mainland China unlike in Tibet and the Himalayan regions of India.
Asked about a campaign by a group of MPs favouring the Bharat Ratna for the Dalai Lama, he said it was the Dalai Lama who propagated and expanded the Nalanda school of Buddhism, which was born in India.
“Way back in the 8th century, from the Nalanda University, many gurus went to Tibet. At that time, there used to be a Bon religion in Tibet. By combining the Bon religion and Buddhism, the concept of Tibetan Buddhism emerged. So Buddhism spread throughout Tibet,” he said.
He said the concept of Tibetan Buddhism spread across the Himalayan belt – from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
The 14th Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India in 1959 after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He has lived in Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh since then with other exiled Tibetans.
Khandu said that all the big monastic centres that were in Tibet at that time, different traditions like Sakya, all the old Buddhist traditions that existed in Tibet, were brought to India by the Dalai Lama who established institutions in different places, especially in south India.
Three foreign-born leading personalities have been awarded the Bharat Ratna in the past: Mother Teresa (1980), Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987), and Nelson Mandela (1990).
PTI