After reaching Sirpur-a famous archaeological site which was an important centre of Buddhist from the 6th the 10th century A.D-Dalai Lama came to know about the resentment among the local tribes over his visit to the caves, which were being propagated by state's archaeologists as well as tourism department as 'Nagarjuna Caves'. Gond tribal community, however, argued that they have been worshipping in these caves since ages and they knew it as 'Chanda Dai' caves.
As the Tibetan spiritual leader was about to cancel his plan to meditate in the caves, district collector R Sangeeta and octogenarian archaeologist Dr Arun Kumar Sharma spoke to the local tribals and conveyed to Dalai Lama that they were not against his visit and they want to meet him to convey their sentiments about the place.
Dalai Lama told TOI "If local people feel some kind of unhappiness about my visiting the cave, I will obey as I do not want to create unnecessary inconvenience to anyone. Therefore, I had almost cancelled the visit when the collector and local archaeologist told me that tribals want to speak to me and they have expressed wish that I should go."
Later, the 78 year old spiritual leader left for caves, which is about 15 kilometres away from the Sirpur archaeological site. After reaching Chanda Dai cave, he climbed about 100 stairs to enter the cave-located in the forests-and meditated for about 20 minutes in remembrance of Nagarjuna-a Buddhist philosopher-whom Dalai Lama considers as his master.
According to archaeologist Arun Kumar Sharma, the cave is more than 200 metres deep in the hill and as per the travelogue written by Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang, Nagarjuna had spent some time here. This led Dalai Lama to cross the tough terrain and meditate in the cave.
After Dalai Lama's visit to the cave, the agitating tribals alleged that the district administration and the police did not allow them to meet the spiritual leader. "They promised us that we will be allowed to meet Dalai Lama but police blocked out way", Mangtu Ram Jagat, president of Singhdhurva Seva Samiti told TOI.
Resentment among tribals over Dalai Lama's visit to the caves cropped up in November last year immediately after the plan was finalized with a section of local tribals objecting to it saying that the administration didn't keep them in the loop while the cave is being worshipped by them since ages.
They also alleged that the cave was "renamed as 'Nagarjuna caves' by the authorities when Dalai Lama decided to come here. "Depending on the versions of Heuin Tsang travelogue and local archaeologist, they can't rename the cave which is being taken care of by Gond tribals. Above all, we don't protest Tibetan leader going to cave and meditating there, we simply want to convey our sentiments about the place to him," they added.
Responding to this, Mahasamund collector R Sangeeta said, "I have promised the locals that the cave won't be renamed and even if the place has to be developed as tourist spot, locals' sentiments will be kept in mind. They should rather welcome the visit of the spiritual guru which would increase the value of entity of their own place."
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