Amid high security, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama visited the ancient Buddhist site of Sirpur and meditated at the historic ‘Chaanda Devi’ caves where his guru and Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna is supposed to have meditated centuries ago.
Located at the sprawling Singhadhruva terrain, Chaanda Devi caves is about 25 km away from Sirpur town in Mahasamund district, on the banks of the Mahanadi river.
“This place is full of natural beauty. My guru Nagarjuna meditated here and I felt his presence here today. It was very peaceful,” Lama told reporters in Sirpur on Tuesday.
The 78-year-old spiritual leader climbed about 100 stairs to enter the cave and meditated for about 20 minutes in remembrance of Nagarjuna - a Buddhist philosopher - whom Lama considers as his guru.
A large number of security personnel, including those from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF), were deployed in the region to avoid any untoward incident in the wake of protests by some tribal villagers against the event.
However, the villagers were later pacified after the district administration assured that the place would be developed as a tourist spot, without hurting their sentiments.
Talking to reporters, Mahasamund Collector R Sangeetha said that the local Gond tribals had been performing rituals to their tribal deity Chaanda Devi for the past several years.
The controversy erupted after some media reports said that the caves would be named after the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna.
Earlier, the Dalai Lama also interacted with students at the ancient Laxman temple in Sirpur and also prayed at a Buddha shrine there.
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