The benefits of opening a border crossing in Eastern Ladakh to facilitate pilgrimage to Kailash and Mansarovar have been outlined by a Parliamentary committee. Reported in The Times of India the proposal was made by the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture which promotes tourism in J&K. This idea has been frequently aired over the last few years and despite recent posturing by China and India in this border area there are clearly individuals who think that the opening of this shorter and more reliable route is still worth pursuing.

The report also recommends the urgent maintenance of several of Ladakh's larger deep relief carvings by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Continuing the heightened profile of the Free Tibet movement another freedom march has been held in Ladakh. An estimated 2500 Ladakhis and Tibetans marched from Spituk to the polo ground in Leh. Click here for more details.

Having gone through various feasibility studies, with occasional coverage in the Indian media over the last 6 months, the Prime Minister's Office has given the construction of a railway linking Bilaspur (HP) with Leh its 'in-principle' approval. The full story is available here.

Reported in The Hindu, the IAF have reopened Daulatbeigh Oldi airbase. Only 8km from the Chinese border (and with two additional airbases scheduled for reopening), this increase in airforce capability is likely to be a direct response to the recent Chinese military incursions in eastern Ladakh.

To coincide with yesterday's Olympic flame carry in New Delhi over 5000 Tibetan exiles and Indian Buddhists marched through Leh. Reports from the South China Morning Post state that businesses and schools were again closed down whilst Tibetan flag carrying demonstrators marched through the town chanting 'free Tibet'.

ALL LADAKH CLOSED
Tenzin Rabten

Because of common Lama, Cultural, tradition & religion of Ladakhi people with the Tibetan's, today on April 2, 2008 they started a mass procession at Leh town to show stand in solidarity with Tibetan in Tibet. Ladakh Buddhist Youth Association, Himayang Action Committee for Tibet, Ladakh Buddhist & Gompa Association Leh, organized this procession.

Since this is the rise of Ladakh, Shri. Chhering Dorjay, Chief Executive Councilor-LADHC, Shri. Rigzin Spalbar, President Ladakh Congress Party, All the High Lamas, School Children, monks & about 150000 Local people joined the relay.

Thupstan Chewang is interviewed by rediff.com on Ladakh border issues, including incursions by the Chinese and the status of the Demchok border crossing for travel to Kailash.

Other news reports confirm that around 15,000 pashmina goats have now perished from starvation on Ladakh's Chang thang. Winter is however on the wane as BRO announce the imminent opening of the Srinagar-Leh highway.

All Ladakh Bandh on March 17, 2008

March 17, 2008 had been observed as black day in Ladakh, India in connection with the recent Chinese suppression in Lhasa, Tibet. Joint hands of Ladakh Buddhist Association, All Ladakh Gompa Association, Himalayan Action Committee and Regional Tibetan Youth Congress organized a mass rally in Leh City. Rally was joined by more then 13000 Tibetan and local Ladakhi Buddhist. This is one of the biggest ever rally in Leh. Young blood Tibetan, showed special responsible on this mass rally. They carry the national flag and play card “(China is a killing Machine. Tibet a Killing Field)-(Stop 2008 olyampic…Act now)!” All the Shops in restaurants in Ladakh were called for BANDH.  Later they put a memorandum to the UNO through kind hand of Deputy Commission, Leh Ladakh.



Thanks to Tenzin Rabten (TCV Ladakh) and Marco Vasta for this illustrated story.

On the 26th February HH the Dalai Lama confirmed Thupstan Ngawang, a child born in Nubra, Ladakh, as the reincarnation of Bakula Rinpoche. The child was born on 24th November 2005 and has been chosen from among several children.

More on this story can be found here

The BBC's South Asia news site has provided an update on the situation in Ladakh's Chang thang.

India's Central Government has approved the establishment of a field research station in Leh with a view to tackling some of the environmental problems faced by the region. See the Times of India article for more info.

More tourists than ever before in Ladakh
February 7, 2008:

Ladakh crossed 50000 mark in tourist inflow last year, which has cast away the apprehension that the popularity of this trans-Himalayan region as a tourist destiny is declining. According to J&K Tourism Department Leh, the number of tourists visited Ladakh last year was 50185 that includes 28178 foreign and 22007 domestic tourists. This figure shows a considerable surge from the previous year’s influx of tourists (43821), which is attributed to more frequent flight operations and suddenly much cheaper air fair option available with the Deccan Airways launching its service between New Delhi and Leh last summer.

The mystic and isolated Ladakh was thrown open to foreign tourists in 1974. It gained instant popularity among them and in a short period tourist influx rose sharply touching 20000 in just about three years. This figure, however, remained constant for many years to come with disturbed periods in between (1989 mass agitation and 1999 Kargil episode) when number of visitors to Ladakh sharply went down.

The incoming of domestic tourists to Ladakh is a recent phenomenon, which was set off by a massive publicity campaign of Sindhu Festival launched by then BJP led NDA government. In 1997, L K Advani, BJP leader and former Union Home Minister, discovered that Sindhu (the Indus River) flowed through Ladakh and he decided to have an annual celebration of Sindhu Festival to give vent to his surcharged ethnical (Sindhi community from Pakistan) and religious sentiments.

This annual festival did bring in lots of domestic tourists in the following years and today the number of domestic tourists has grown almost equal to foreigners even as the rate of increase is much higher than the later. Last year’s figure tells that about 4000 more domestic tourists visited Ladakh than the previous year’s record of 17707.

With the increase in the number of tourists visiting Ladakh there has also been considerable growth in hotels, guest houses and other tourist facilities. According to J&K Tourism Department, Leh, there are 124 hotels with double-bed capacity of 1900 and 365 guest houses with similar bed capacity. In addition, there are 150 restaurants registered with the Tourism department.

These establishments together generate huge employment opportunities. Hotels only employ some 1400 staff including cooks and waiters. Apart from this, some 5000 people are engaged as travel agents, guides, taxi drivers, bus operators and pony men. Tourism department has registered 228 pony men and 165 professional guides.

Click here for news on reported Chinese activity around Demchok and detail on ceding Aksai Chin.

February 6, 2008:
T Morup, Leh

Power shortage is the biggest constraint in Ladakh preventing real industrial growth here, however, this problem will be solved to a great extent with the commencement of 45-megawatt Nemo-Basgo Hydel project expected to be completed in less than the target period.

Engineers of NHPC have told Chering Dorjey the LAHDC Leh Chairman that they should be able to hand over the power project completed in about three and a half years from now. Mr. Dorjey revealed this in his address during a one-day seminar on Entrepreneurship Awareness Program organized by J&K Entrepreneurship Development (JKED) and sponsored by SIDBI at JKED office in Leh Industrial Area today.

He hoped that with the commencement of the hydel project the “constraint” will be removed ushering in a new era of progress and employment opportunities. In his reaction to grievances against bank loans raised by a trainee with ITI unit in Leh, Mr. Dorjey said, there are many such complaints and SBI Leh despite being the second most profiting bank in the entire J&K State fail to meet their quota of subsidized loans for local enterprises. Relatively better performance by J&K Bank in this regard can be attributed to its special drive to recruit local staff, he said adding that the Hill Council’s insistence to carry out similar drive was not paid heed to by SBI.

The next biggest issue in entrepreneurship development in Leh is always ‘imitating’ others’ businesses while being afraid of starting something new. Both Mr. Dorjey and Tsering Nurboo Lampa, EC Agriculture raised this issue prevailing in Leh. Jumping into ventures without having enough capacity and plan leads to a crises situation. For example, the number of steel fabricators in Leh grew out of proportion after some initial successes leaving the new entrepreneurs unable to even pay the salaries of the workers.

At the same time the inability to ‘think big’ and refusing to actually come forward and accept the challenges in taking up major enterprises or business projects also pose a constraint in the growth of industry in Ladakh. Mr. Dorjey said, no local qualifies for major loan schemes such as those available with the National Horticulture Board of India. Similarly, a 14-crore road and bridges project in Leh being financed by ADB, on Hill Council’s insistence, was broken up into five sub-contracts, yet hardly one or two contractors qualified for it, Mr. Dorjey said.

Reported today on the BBC's South Asia news site, recent heavy snow is threatening the survival of grazing livestock on Ladakh's Chang thang. It would appear that the crisis is on a similar scale to that experienced in the winter of 1998 when similar events resulted in the starvation of thousands of yak, sheep and goat. The gravity of the situation is partly attributed to the locust activity which has decimated fodder supplies in parts of eastern Ladakh (and much of Zangskar) over the last three summers.

Jammu, Sunday, January 06, 2008
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here today that his Government would carry our a review in order to give more powers to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC-Leh) with a view to further strengthening it.

He gave this assurance to a delegation of the Latah Union Territory Front (LUTF) led by Mr Thupstan Chhewang, MP and LUTF president, at an hour-long meeting at his residence here. The Chief Minister also expressed his views about the other notable demands of the LUTF concerning the inclusion of the Bhoti language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, reopening of the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage through Leh and police atrocities on elected representatives and Buddhist leaders.

The meeting of Ladakh leaders with the Chief Minister followed one that they had with National Conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah and NC president Omar Abdullah yesterday. In a statement here, Mr Chhewang quoted the Chief Minister as having promised the delegation that his government would certainly consider investing the LAHDC with more financial and legislative powers. The delegation pointed out to him that the powers given so far were more “symbolic” in nature. The Council in reality had no control over employees, for instance.

The Chief Minister was apprised about the manner of the revival of the district unit of the Congress by keeping even senior party functionaries in the dark. He was also told about the terror let loose by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and his police in Leh district against leaders of the LUTF as well as the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA).

Mr Azad evinced great interest in both the developments and made several queries. About the demand for the removal of the SSP he said he would let the MP and MLA (Mr Pinto Norboo) know about it after some time. “We got the impression as if the Chief Minister wanted to discuss the matter with the top police brass,” Mr Chhewang said.

According to Mr Chhewang, the Chief Minister said his Government would take steps to get the Bhoti language its due recognition. The delegation pointed out to him that a Cabinet resolution was required for its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

The Chief Minister asserted that he would do his best to get the Leh route opened for the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage. He told the delegation that he would take up the matter with the Prime Minister, Dr Man Mohan Singh, who incidentally was scheduled to go to China .

The Chief Minister also showed urgency in translating the pending local development projects into a reality. He assured that he would give instructions to the new Power Minister to get the power schemes moving. He also promised to favourably consider the plea for starting helicopter service to Lingshet during winters. About the creation of more tehsils and sub-divisions the Chief Minister said the Government would take a decision after receiving the Bloeria Committee report on reorganisation of administrative units.

The delegation also presented a memorandum to the Chief Minister on the occasion listing their demands.Yesterday the delegation had held a detailed meeting with Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mr Omar Abdullah.

The NC leaders assured it that their party would raise their demands on the floor of the Assembly. The delegation thanked them for their support. It had earlier in the week met Mr A.R. Rather, NC Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Mr Chhewang said the delegation was quite satisfied with the concern shown by all political parties about the situation in Leh. They had met their leaders during nearly one-long stay in this city. He also thanked the Chief Minister for being positive and responsive.

He said the LUTF in keeping with its insistence on exercising democratic options would hold a dharna in the city. This will be done to strike a rapport with local citizens and inform them about developments in Ladakh. This would also help build harmonious human relations.

The delegation consisted of, apart from Mr Chhewang (Leh), Mr Pinto Norboo, MLA (Nubra), Executive councillors and councillors of LAHDC Mr Dorjay had to cut short his stay and fly back to Leh on Friday to keep his official schedule.

Dr Phuntsog Dorjay has submitted this story Jammu University to host lecture on Pre-Tibetan Buddhist Rock Sculptures for coverage on 'News and Noticeboard'. The article provides some background on Ladakhi rock carvings and inscriptions whilst highlighting the need for greater conservation efforts.



1. hunters and ibex at Alchi (October 2006)


2. rock art slowly being harvested for construction (summer 2004)


3. 'Cement renovation' of the deep relief 5 Buddha bodies in Padum (September 2006).
Picture credits: Seb Mankelow

PM urged to hasten grant of UT status

New Delhi, Monday, December 24, 2007
Stating that a reign of terror had been let loose by the State Government in Leh, a delegation of the Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) urged the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, here today to expedite granting Union Territory status to Ladakh.

Members of the delegation flew into the national capital from Leh to apprise the Prime Minister about the latest developments in their trans-Himalayan region.

The Prime Minister spent about several minutes with them giving a patient hearing.

Led by Mr Thupstan Chhewang, MP and LUTF President, the delegation also beseeched the Prime Minister to include the Bhoti language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and open the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage through Leh.

It pointed out that Bhoti was spoken by almost all inhabitants of border Himalayan regions in the country. The elevation of the language would boost their “confidence and self-esteem.” The opening of Leh route for the Kailash-Mansarovar yatra wouldl usher in prosperity in Ladah. It would also make the journey smoother compared to its present arduous passage through Uttarakhand, the delegation said.

Making a strong case for UT, the delegation pointed out that the Congress-led State Government was treating the duly-elected Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC-Leh) with utter contempt. It stated: “A reign of terror and repression has been let loose against us by the Congress-led State Government in Jammu and Kashmir. The police has been set upon on us as a clearly pre-meditated strategy to browbeat us into submission.”

It referred in this regard to the forcible closure of the headquarters of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA), framing of false criminal including murder and attempt to murder charges against its office-bearers, police assault on an elected LUTF councillor, disrespect being shown to the Chairman and Chief Executive Councillor of the LAHDC and a campaign of calumny against the LUTF chief.

The delegation asserted: “We are constrained to seek existence with honour because the Congress-led State Government keeps adding salt to our wounds. Its latest actions against us are not only brutal but an affront to human dignity and conscience.”

It brought to the Prime Minister’s notice: “Sometimes we debate among ourselves whether grassroots democracy can truly succeed in our State. It was after a long struggle that we had achieved the formation of the LAHDC as the first major step towards attaining the Union Territory. We thought that the Council would help us govern our affairs at least to some extent. This has not happened.

“We continue to be deprived of many financial and legislative powers. Our experience has been worse with key police and administrative officials remote-controlled from Srinagar. They hardly show any appreciation of basic tenets of democracy and our distinct and unique ethnic and linguistic identity. How can policemen or bureaucrats be allowed to ride roughshod over a democratic dispensation? How can they treat our social and religious organisations with utter contempt? Their wrong-doings have strengthened our resolve to keep striving for Union Territory for we want to strengthen what we regard as our umbilical chord with New Delhi.”

The members of the delegation were: Mr Tsering Dorjay, Chairman and Chief Executive Councillor of the Ladakh Autonomos Hill Development Council (LeH). Mr Sonam Wangchuk Norboo, MLA, Nubra, Mr Tsering Angdus and Mr Tsewang Tondup (Councillors), Mr Lobzang Nyantak (senior LUTF leader), Mr Dorjey Stanzin, Mr Stanzin Delik, Mr Tsering Angchuk, Mr Jigmet Namgyal, Mr Sonam Tsering, Mr Nawang Norboo, Mr Chotar Tsering, Mr Tsering Paldan, Mr Tondup Spalzang, Mr Phunchok Stanzin,, Mr Sonam Dorjey and Mr Dorjey Namgyal (all councillors).

They reached here this afternoon after holding a mammoth public meeting in Leh to seek public endorsement of their stand.

Reproduced with the kind permission of The Magpie
A supporting story to the one above can be found in the Daily Excelsior archive

By The Magpie
Leh, Saturday, October 13, 2007

Overland Escape, a travel company based in Ladakh, organized a cleaning drive collecting tons of garbage along the trekking routes between Lamayuru and Padum in Zanskar with a dual purpose of reducing the ever growing garbage menace along this popular route and creating awareness among the general public about the environmental hazards of piles and piles of rubbish trekking groups leave behind them.

The 10-member team found that Silver foil used to carry packed lunch, fruity packets, coca cola and pepsi bottles, mushroom, tuna tins were mainly found everywhere along the route. Tsering Namgyal, a staff of Overland Escape who led the group with another staff Kunga and a German lady Nana, observed that the main stockpiles of garbage were found around the stalls and camping site put up at different points and the worst situation was at Fanjila, which forms the junction for three trekking routes leading to Chilling, Alchi and Zanskar.
Namgyal said, it was sad to see that villagers everywhere were least bothered about the garbage lying at their places for many years. Expressing his concern he further said, if this growing garbage menace along the trekking routes is not dealt with these areas would be left with nothing but rubbish all over.
The team left the garbage bags at Tourism Office compound in Padum, where the Tourist Officer Mr. Namgyal wrote an appreciation letter for their effort. The Director of Overland Escape Tundup Dorjey said, by organizing such cleaning campaigns we want to repay our debts to nature, environment of Ladakh, that provide us with a tremendous resource to earn our livelihood and we feel greatly obliged. Through our such constant cleaning drives we have now come to realize that it would need more than just cleaning, so we have set up a plan to try and convince the local government to have strict regulations issued to travel agencies to bring the garbage back along with them in future. For this purpose our travel company has already produced “Green Bags” to be issued to different trekking groups for at least bringing their rubbish back with and not leave it to cause further depredation of nature.

One of our members of the campaign team, Nana Ziesche from Germany wrote her experience about the latest cleaning campaign that we carried out along the routes between Lamayuru and Zanskar:

Since 1993 I’m traveling to Ladakh, first as a backpacker, after a while as a group leader and since 2000 I have an own travel agency called Ladakh Travel, based in Hamburg/Germany. I’m working together with the ladakhi Travel Agency Overland Escape since some years. Feedback of clients is usually positive; just there is a constant complaint about the rubbish in Ladakh, not only on the trekking routes but also in the villages. So we thought it a good idea to do a cleaning trek like it was done several times before. We chose the Lamayuru-Padum-Trek as we heard that the last clean-up was already some years ago. Apart from that I was doing this trek in 1996 and I was curious what changes had taken place.
So we set off on 15th September with a troupe of 7 Ladakhi boys, 3 Nepalese Cooks and a helper, 3 horsemen from Himachal with 15 horses and myself as the only westerner and a woman.
The cleaning was so organized that we put the plastic bottles and crushed tins in bags and burnt the other rubbish like food packets, old clothes etc. We started in Lamayuru, but found out very quickly that we could spend days and fill more then the bags we brought as it was very dirty. It was not only our aim to clean up, but also involve the villagers and create some awareness about environmental issues and the problem that if no-one cares about the rubbish, Ladakh will be in 10 years just one big garbage pit. But villagers said that they had other impending works to do at that time. Quite obviously, it was their harvesting time, however, the usual bunch of boys hanging around didn’t show any enthusiasm in helping. So we just cleaned the camping area and around, put the filled bags on the truck and set off for Wanla.
The trekking route, apart from Bonbon-paper and some empty Frooties, was quite clean. About Wanla I can’t say much as I unfortunately caught fever, vomited and remained lying down in the tent. But I saw next day the truck leaving with 20 bags of rubbish to be disposed in Leh.
We started slowly only as far as Fanjilla filling up 2 bags on the roadsides with 2/3 burnable items. At Fanjilla, we were surprised to find lots of dirt strewn around such as at Lamayuru, but maybe with some shops and tent restaurants selling soft drinks and other items it was just “unavoidable”. After talking to a couple of women they agreed to help in the afternoon, but no one turned up when we started. A single lady who showed up rather late simply ignored the garbage we had collected by saying that that there was no rubbish around her place. We burnt a big rubbish pile and things such as plastic bottles were packed in some five bags to be carried on horses. We moved on further into Hanupatta gorge for some four kilometers collecting rubbish including plastics. On the way we came across a tent restaurant owned by a 15-years-old boy called Nyima. His stall had soft drinks and some food items brought in on his motorbike for exhausted trekkers. It was bit disappointing to know from him that he threw most of the empty bottles, cans etc. into the river, while some he was using as a decorative items in his stall. As we proceeded further we finally got to the village with some 15 houses, however we could hardly find any men, there were some children and women who we could assemble for our usual briefing on garbage menace and thereby seeking their participation in collecting the rubbish strewn around. They asked for money in return, however, we refused saying that it was their village and they should keep their place clean. Finally, some boys were spared to join us. Fortunately, there were not many plastic bottles so we could burn the other rubbish at the next camping site.
The next day when we were crossing Sirsir-la to get to Photoksar, enroute we found tins of mushroom, tuna, paneer, fruit cocktail – some so old and rusted that it was difficult to recognize the label. We filled bags with these tins crushed making our load quite heavy. At the camping site we were pleased to find a garbage pit with piles of rubbish, but not separated and burnt. So we added our load pile into the pit and did our job.
The worst scene we came across was at the second camping site at Photoksar, where it seemed that open ground was being used as toilet as a result it was not pleasant to pick rubbish there. Some villagers even complained that their animals bear the brunt of such unmindful garbage including broken glasses and tins.
The Singge-la Base Camp had relatively less garbage perhaps due to the less number of trekkers using this route. The campling at Gongma Yulchung was very clean as villagers themselves cared to keep the surroundings clean.
Finally, we got some appreciation from some other trekkers at Lingshed, who were concerned about the garbage problem on trekking routes. Some Americans joined us in our cleaning drive that was quite encouraging. They told us that at some camping sites they refused to pay the fees unless the owners promised to keep the site clean.
The next, we moved further on collecting plastic bottles on the way towards the road. It was disgusting to see age old garbage lying strewn all over including along the river in Hanamur and Pishu villages and cleaning was almost impossible for us. A bad pungent smell of rubbish prevailed in the area. There was an abandoned restaurant at Pishu, where only an old lady helped us in cleaning the area while as a bunch of men did not care at all and were rather busy playing cards.
By the time we were in Padum (headquarter Zanskar) after 10 days of rigorous garbage collection all along the trek routes we had some 13 bags filled with plastic bottles, crushed tins that we showed to the Tourist Officer, Mr. Namgyal, who hesitantly agreed to give a space to keep the garbage, but he did not give us the clue about the proper disposal. Nevertheless, he appreciated our work and hoped that such campaign would help create awareness among people in Padum, where problem was a serious concern. Until now people would just throw garbage anywhere least bothered about environmental hazard it causes. Having a stroll around town myself I could see the obvious and was in a way speechless that it is possible that in a modern country as India is in many aspects, there are still these awful environmental conditions.
Just to add my observations about 11 years ago trekking, I felt a big change with the tent restaurants and their offer of soft drinks and other rubbish-arising items. In earlier years it was only possible to buy something up to Wanla and after Pishu. But rubbish was already there as I remember us being quite early at one camping and collecting every burnable item to have a nice little fire and getting it much cleaner.
As long as Ladakhis want to get money by selling items to trekkers, I feel that it should be also their responsibility to care about the rubbish afterwards. But tourists also could help with a bigger demand for local products and avoid the rubbish arising items.

By The Magpie
Leh, Wednesday, August 29, 2007
For five days, tens and thousands of devotees, assembled every day at the lush green meadow of Zhiwe-tsal (the garden of peace), at Choglamsar to attend the sermon on stages of path to enlightenment (Lamrim) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This preaching was mainly introductory in nature especially for understanding by the people of Ladakh the essence of Buddhism.
He also gave instructions on the precepts of Gyenyens (Upasaks and Upasikas) followed by the pledge taking ceremony. These precepts include abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, taking intoxicants and lying, which are necessary to be followed by a common Buddhist practitioner preached His Holiness.
Followed by these instructions the last day, His Holiness also gave the empowerment of the lord of great compassion (the eleven-headed Avalokitesvara) amidst intense spiritual energy in the air.
A large number of followers including foreigners participated in the empowerment ceremony. While the rituals were on, many looked up in the sky to catch a glimpse of Halo around the sun - a good omen in Buddhism. The day was marked by another auspicious event., when the bone relics of the Buddha Shakyamuni arrived in Zhiwetsal and the His Holiness, considered to be the living Buddha, left his throne to receive it with incense. The large number of blessed audience witnessed His Holiness holding the sacred relict briefly.
A large number of Muslims, Hindus and Christians were also seen attending the concluding day of the five day preaching. There were lot cultural troups from different part of Ladakh celebrating this day, and there was a festive mood amongst the blessed devotees, and thoroughly enjoyed the colourful cultural shows in honour of His Holiness. Immensely delighted, His Holiness promised the people of Ladakh that he will visit Ladakh next year, when he will also travel to Kargil and Zangskar.
On this day, His Holiness emphasized especially on the need to follow the Dharma not only by the monks but also by the laymen. He also mentioned about the lack coordination between various organisation in Ladakh. He said that such lack of coordination leads to duplication of work by various organisation, which needs to be curbed for the general welfare of the people of Ladakh.
On the previous day, the Sten-juk ceremony for the long life of His Holiness was held. The ongoing Pig year, according to the Tibetan calendar, coincides with the year His Holiness was born and such coincidence is considered inauspicious in Tibetan astrology. In Sten juk ceremony, apart from prayers, offerings in cash and kind were made by devotees from all religious communities for the long life of His Holiness. Prayers were also performed by other religious communities in their mosques, temples, gurudwaras, church for the same purpose, said Dr. Dawa, President, LBA.