DHARAMSALA: The Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, on Saturday departed for his visit to Sikkim and West Bengal, where he is scheduled to give teachings from December 12 to 14. This visit has heightened diplomatic discussions regarding the ongoing border tension between India and China.

During his tour, Dalai Lama will give teachings in Gangtok, which is just about 50 kilometres away from the China border. He will give teachings on Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo's 37 practices of a Boddhisattva (leklen sodunma) in the morning at Paljor Stadium at the request of the Sikkim State Government.

After this, he will leave for teachings in West Bengal's Salugara on December 14. He will give a general teaching followed by the Ceremony for Generation of Bodhicitta (semkye) at Sed-Gyued Monastery.

Dalai Lama's secretary, Chimi Rigzin said, "His Holiness is going to Sikkim at the invitation of the State Government of Sikkim and CM Prem Singh Tamang and he will be there for two days during which he will give teachings at Paljor Stadium, which is a public teaching and the next day there is a state banquet for his holiness and then on the 14th morning he goes to Salugara and he will give a public teaching there."

"Sikkim is a very important state and in fact, it was Sikkim that his holiness first came to India in 1956 to attend the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha Jayanti, so he has since then visited Sikkim quite a few times and he said he became quite sentimental when he goes to Sikkim whenever he goes there because when he first arrived in Sikkim in 1956, as I said earlier, he sort of felt very sentimental about it. Well, Sikkim is a state of government of India so China has no reason to be annoyed because China also recognises Sikkim as a state of India," Dalai Lama's secretary added.