The choedhar, or Buddhist religious flag, has five colours — blue symbolising sky, ochre for earth with white, red and orange in between. Driving past rows of choedhars in this eastern Himalayan town, the 14th Dalai Lama will pitch in for another Buddhist colour — green.
“His Holiness is deeply concerned about the stress on the Himalayan ecology,” former minister T.G. Rimpoche, also the abbot of the Lumla Monastery, 65 km west of here, told HT. “His agenda is to blend spiritualism with conservation, using Tawang as the launch pad for his green mission.”
The Eastern Himalayas, part of the highly sensitive Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, are unstable and prone to landslips.
A tree planting ceremony will be held ahead of the first session of the Dalai Lama’s sermons on Monday. He’ll distribute saplings among 1,500 lamas and devotees.
“We intend to plant these saplings on barren patches around the town,” Deputy Commissioner Gamli Padu said.