Dalai Lama offers prayers in Patna

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama offered a special prayer at Budha Smriti park here after participating in a tree plantation drive on Wednesday, officials said.

"The Dalai Lama visited Budha Smriti park along with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and offered a special prayer after participating in a function to plant saplings of Bodhi tree," a district official said.

It was the Dalai Lama who inaugurated the 22-acre Buddha Smriti park in the heart of Patna in 2010.

Earlier, Nitish Kumar received the spiritual guru at Patna airport and thanked him for visiting the state capital.

According to officials, he has left for Bodh Gaya in a state government airplane to participate in 34th Kalchakra puja, beginning on Thursday.

The Dalai Lama will stay in Bodh Gaya, about 110 km from here, till January 10 for the puja. "Tight security arrangements have been made for his stay in Bodh Gaya in view of threat perception to him."

The Dalai Lama has been living in India in self-imposed exile since 1959 when he fled his homeland after Chinese Communist troops took over Tibet.

--IANS

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