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ShareTawang: Cooks have been trained for a month to serve the Dalai Lama's favourite fare, while gifts are being stocked for him for a year in advance in this picturesque Arunachal town, set to welcome the Tibetan spiritual leader tomorrow.
"The Dalai Lama's favourite dishes cannot be disclosed, but cooks have been training for a month to prepare them," head of the Tawang Monastery Tulku Rimpoche said.
The monastery authorities also have in store a large number of gifts including scriptures, miniature replicas of stupas, sculptures and flowers.
"The gifts were being readied for the last one year and will be presented to the Dalai Lama when he comes here," Rimpoche said. "Nearly 600 monks will welcome His Holiness when he comes here straight from the helipad tomorrow morning," he said.
The spiritual leader will be staying in a special suite, which has been spruced up, in the 300-year-old monastery.
After his arrival, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to inaugurate a museum, containing historic scriptures of the Buddhist religion, and then proceed to the main prayer hall, Dukhang, for a prayer session.
Later in the day, the spiritual leader will inaugurate a library of the monastery school at the Centre for Buddhist Culture Studies and then visit the district hospital where the consecration ceremony of a Buddha statue will be held.
The deputy commissioner of Tawang district, Gamli Padu, said security will be the tight considering the circumstances under which the Dalai Lama was visiting.
Without referring to controversies surrounding the visit, the deputy commissioner said the presence of a large number of devotees, tourists, foreigners and the media have forced the district administration to make elaborate security arrangements.
"The Dalai Lama had also earlier visited Tawang, but this time his presence has attracted attention worldwide and hence the tightening of the security," he said.
The Tawang district administration has declared a holiday till November 12 during the duration of the Dalai Lama's visit when he will hold religious discourses and bless the people.
Saturday is the cleaning day for residents when people including children take to the streets to clear them of dirt and rubbish.
