The five-day Naropa Festival, celebrating 1,000 plus years of the life of Naropa — who lived between 1016 to 1100 CE — witnessed the formal inauguration of Naropa fellowship for post-graduates and ‘next generation leaders’ on Sunday at The Hemis — a Buddhist Monestry, situated 45 km from Leh — where followers of Drupka Lineage from India, Tibet, and other parts of the world welcomed the guests.
This year’s celebration of the festival, famous as the Himalayan Kumbh, is a “special case”.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Khamtak Rinpoche, the chairperson of the organising committee, said: “Naropa Festival takes places every 12 years in the Tibetan calendar, the last celebration was organised in year 2016 for the completion of 1,000 years of Naropa legacy, this year it is organised as a special case as many of our devotees could not attend and seek the blessings of the Naropa in 2016.”