April 19: The Central Tibetan Administration on Monday informed that their spiritual leader Dalai Lama (14th) is likely to visit Ladakh between July and August this year, reported the ToI.

This would be among the first public visit of the Dalai Lama, after the Covid19 pandemic hit the country in January 2020, as all this while he remained indoors at his residence at Dharamshala of Himachal Pradesh.

The Tibetan leader has accepted the request of former parliamentarian and Ladakh Buddhist Association president Thupstan Chewang and Thiksay Rinpoche of Thiksay Monastery, who met him at his residence.

The visit is scheduled at a time when India and China are engaged in an active faceoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese consider the Dalai Lama as their enemy and have often objected to his visits to Ladakh, where the Tibetan leader even celebrated his 83rd birthday on July 6 in 2018.

“His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama grants an audience to Thiksay Rinpoche and former Parliamentarian Thupten Tsewang at his residence on 18 April 2022. At the meeting, His Holiness agreed to visit Ladakh in July or August at their request,” informed the official handle of the CTA. “Followers in Ladakh will be delighted,” TOI quoted Chewang.

“After spending most of the time at his residence since the global COVID-19 outbreak, His Holiness the Dalai Lama agrees to visit and bless devotees in Ladakh between July and August,” the CTA informed. Until now, the Dalai Lama has only granted virtual and in-person audiences from his residence in Dharamshala. Sikyong Penpa Tsering received the delegation at CTA following their meeting with the Dalai Lama.

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“The good news for Ladakh is that His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama agrees to visit Ladakh in July. Thank you, His Holiness,” Konchok Stanzin, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council councillor from Chushul of eastern Ladakh tweeted.

During his visit to Ladakh in 2018, Dalai Lama had said, “The people in Tibet mention my name on their dying breaths, so, clearly, the majority of them put their trust in me. The cause of the Tibetan people is a just and worthy cause. As well as a responsibility towards the people of the Land of Snow, I feel bound to work to preserve the culture and language of Tibet.”