Thaindian News

Mumbai, Dec 10 (IANS) Buddhist spiritual leader Gyalwang Drukpa Saturday launched a march from Mumbai to Bhopal to spread the message of peace, harmony and love for the environment, his spokesperson said.

The Drukpa is the religious head of the 10-centuries-old Drukpa lineage and the march includes nearly 500 Buddhist monks and nuns, celebrities, corporate personalities, followers of Buddhism and commoners.

“The march was launched today in south Mumbai and will proceed to the thousands of years old Kanheri Caves in north Mumbai tomorrow. En route the entire padayatra, the participants will clean the path and dispose of garbage,” said a spokesperson for the Drukpa, who has founded a unique school in Ladakh for imparting vocational education to the children.

From Mumbai and Kanheri Caves, the padayatra will pass through the Elephanta Caves island off the Mumbai coast, the Kondana Caves near Karjat in Raigad district of Maharashtra, the Rajmachi, Karla, Bhaja and then to the world famous Ajanta-Ellora Caves in Aurangabad district before proceeding to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh by Jan 6, 2012.

“This padayatra symbolises the journey from ’self to selflessness’. On the personal side, this is an effort to come closer to nature and enjoy its bounty and simultaneously raise awareness about the environment, and ensuring that there is widespread education on the various facets that focus on environment and sustainability subjects,” said Gyalwang Drukpa at the start of the march.

This is the fifth such padayatra and first from Mumbai, led by the Drukpa in the past five years - earlier he led thousands of people on foot in Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh from where he hails, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim.

At each such initiative, the marchers picked up over a tonne of garbage and disposed it of in an eco-friendly manner.

The Drukpa leads a sect of Buddhists similar to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

A recipient of the UN Millennium Development Goals Award and India’s Green Hero Award, the Drukpa also led Ladakh last year in creating a Guinness World Record for planting maximum trees in the region.

An academician and philanthropist, he has founded a unique school in Ladakh which became famous after the shooting of Aamir Khan’s film “3 Idiots” there.