Pema Yangjum of Krolam, a small township in the Tashigang district of Bhutan, just lived her dream. Having travelled for seven long hours through the winding Himalayan road, along with her two-month old daughter, she finally saw the Dalai Lama on Sunday.

“I am so happy I saw His Holiness from just about two metres. I also held up my child so that he could see her,” said Pema, who stood for nearly three hours on the roadside in the Nehru Market to see the Dalai Lama while on his way to the Gaden Namgyal Lhatse monastery.

The Dalai Lama arrived at around 11 am on a private helicopter from Guwahati, after having flown from New Delhi early in the day. While T G Rimpoche, abbot of

the Lumla Monastery and chairman of the reception committee, accompanied the Dalai Lama from Guwahati, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu welcomed him at the local helipad.

More than 500 Bhutanese had arrived here since early morning. Sixty-seven-year-old Tsering Chodden, a Monpa tribal, and 10 others trekked one full day from Lumpo, a village close to the India-China border in Tawang district, to see their most important religious leader. “I had missed the three earlier occasions when His Holiness came to Tawang. My life would have remained incomplete without seeing him,” said Tsering.

While for the local Monpa and Sherdukpen tribals a glimpse of the Dalai Lama has more do with their religious and spiritual life, for hundreds of Tibetan refugees living here or coming from other places of the Northeastern region, it is an emotional issue. “We cannot forgive the Chinese for what they did to Tibet. Having a glimpse of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at least gave me some peace,” said 67-year Phuti Gyelpo, a Tibetan refugee from Kohima in Nagaland, saying she silently prayed for Tibet as the Dalai Lama drove past.

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