Rescheduled Visit: Dalai Lama to visit Sikkim in December
By Tsering Choephel
DHARAMSALA, 28 Nov: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibet is confirmed to visit Gangtok, Sikkim, on 11 December 2023, according to the circular issued by the Government of Sikkim’s Home Department and as per the Dalai Lama’s schedule announced on his official website.
During his visit, on 12 December, the Dalai Lama will give a one-day teaching on Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo’s ’37 Practices of a Bodhisattva’ (laklen sodunma) in the morning at Paljor Stadium, which has a capacity of 30,000 people. The Dalai Lama is also scheduled to give a general teaching followed by the ‘Ceremony for Generation of Bodhicitta’ at Sed-Gyued Monastery in Salugara, West Bengal, on 14 December.
His visit to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim state in northeast India, initially planned from 16 to 22 October, was postponed due to the flash floods caused by a cloudburst at Teesta River. The visit, later scheduled in the month of November, was cancelled at the advice of his personal physicians for the Dalai Lama’s full recovery from his bout of flu.
The Dalai Lama had bestowed the 17th and 24th Kalachakra Teachings in Gangtok in 1993 and Salugara in 1996, respectively.
Following his visit and teachings in Sikkim and West Bengal, the Tibetan Nobel laureate will be visiting Bodhgaya, Bihar, with a series of programs and teachings scheduled in the month of December until the 1st of January, on which a long life prayer will be offered to him in the morning at the Kalachakra Teaching Ground, as per his schedule listed on his official website.
