How Dalai Lama arrived in India 58 years ago

The spiritual leader, Dalai Lama is all set to visit Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday evening. The Dalai Lama last visited Arunachal Pradesh in 2009. China protested that trip as well, but there was no major impact on relations with India.

His arrival in India on a yak:

On March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama left Lhasa in the night under dramatic circumstances and reached Lhuntse Dzong, the border between India and Tibet.

A rare letter from the Dalai Lama to Nehru

The Tibetan temporal leader wrote to the then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to seek refuge in India. However, Delhi took immediately measures to welcome the Tibetan leader and receive the party (his close family, four of his Cabinet ministers and some attendants and bodyguards) at the first Indian post at Chuthangmu, north of Tawang, then part of the Kameng Frontier Division.

Dalai Lama recalls his escape to India:

In 1959, Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet and reached Tawang where he enjoyed freedom for the first time and started a new chapter in his life.

Indo-China relationship:

Dalai Lama escape to India marked a crucial point in the relationship between India and China. In 1959, along with thousands of supporters, the spiritual leader escaped from China and crossed over at the Chuthangmu post.

Dalai Lama's emotional reunion with guard

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama with Naren Chandra Das, a retired havildar of 5 Assam Rifles during Namami Brahmaputra festival in Guwahati on Sunday. Das is the lone survivor of the seven Indian personnel who received Dalai Lama on Indian soil when he escaped from Tibet in 1959.

China warns India:

The Chinese foreign ministry had warned India that the visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as part of Tibet, will cause serious damage to bilateral ties.

OneIndia News

All Photos taken from PTI