By Syed Zarir Hussain
Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Nov 8 (IANS) The Dalai Lama arrived in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh Sunday to a rousing reception by hundreds of monks and the resonating sound of gongs and cymbals.

The spiritual leader of the Tibetans who has thousands of followers around the world arrived at this picture-pretty town perched at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, close to the border with China, on a weeklong visit to this mountainous state of about one million people.

Thousands of locals in traditional costumes and monks attired in their maroon robes, waiting on either side of the eight-kilometre road leading from the helipad to the Tawang monastery, waved at a beaming Dalai Lama as his motorcade snaked past the hilly terrain.

The spiritual leader looked jovial as he was seen waving back at the crowd that thronged the streets since early Sunday.

At the monastery, about 800 monks, including scores of child monks, gave the Dalai Lama a religious welcome amid chants of Buddhist hymns as a strong smell of burning incense wafted through the air.

Giant gongs were played by monks dressed in new robes, while priests of the monastery prostrated as the Dalai Lama alighted from the vehicle.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and other high priests then led the spiritual leader inside the monastery.

The Dalai Lama, however, did not interact with journalists.

Indian and Tibetan prayer flags fluttered alongside, while banners and life-size posters of the Dalai Lama adorned the streets and rooftops with the entire Tawang town of about 35,000 people wearing a festive look.

“It was a lifetime experience to have seen the Dalai Lama from so close. He waved back at us and I consider this to be a blessing for me and the people here,” an excited child monk who identified himself as Sherbu told this IANS correspondent.

The Dalai Lama will inaugurate a museum and a library at the monastery and then address monks and priests later Sunday.

“The Dalai Lama’s main itinerary begins Monday when he starts the prayer session at a school playground near the monastery. That would be his first public interaction in the form of a religious discourse,” said Guru Tulku, the abbot of the monastery.

It was through Tawang, a revered seat of Buddhism, that in 1959 the Dalai Lama escaped the Chinese to enter India where he set up base in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala in the Himachal Pradesh state.

The Buddhist leader would then visit the adjoining town of Bomdilla and Dirang Nov 12, before leaving for state capital Itanagar Nov 14. The visit ends Nov 15.

China has raked up a controversy by asking India not to allow the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit Arunachal Pradesh, as it lays claim on the territory.