Bodhgaya (Bihar), December 31 – Buddhist spiritual leader the 17th Karmapa Lama Ugyen Thrinley Dorje on Wednesday prayed for world peace at a ten-day prayer ceremony of his sect in Bodhgaya.
Dorje, the only senior monk to be recognised by both Beijing and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, led the 12th annual prayer ceremony of his Kargyu Monlam sect.
“The main purpose for coming here is to preside over the annual Kargyu prayer festival of all Kargyu people. This is dedicated to the peace of world,” he told reporters after the prayer ceremony.
Tibetans living-in-exile in India and those from neighbouring Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan have congregated in the holy city along with Buddhists from different European countries.
The prayer ceremony will conclude on 7th of January.
The boy Lama, who fled to India two years ago, is now settled in Dharamsala. He arrived in Dharamsala in January 2001 after an arduous 1400-km journey through the snow-bound Himalayas.
He is the head of the Karma Kargyu sect of Buddhism, headquartered at Rumtek Monastery in the eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim on the China border. Karmapa was granted refugee status by the Centre in February last year.
