Dalai Lama meets AR Jawan who escorted him to India 58 yrs ago
Guwahati
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Sunday had an emotional reunion with a Assam Rifles Jawan Naren Chandra Das who escorted him to India during his escape from Tibet in March 1959. Naren Chandra Das, 76 years, served as the jawan of 5th Assam Rifles battalion. He had received Dalai and escorted him till Balipara in Assam after his escape from Tibet.
The Dalai Lama embraced retired jawan Naren Chandra Das at an interactive session organised at the ‘Namami Brahmaputra’ River festival by the Assam government in Guwahati.
“Thank you very much…. I am very very happy to meet such an old member of the Assam Rifles who guarded and escorted me to India 58 years ago,” a visibly emotional Dalai Lama said on the occasion.
At that time, Das was posted at Lungla near the China border after completing his training at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Das said.
Asked whether he had any interaction with the Dalai Lama during that journey, Das said that they were not allowed to talk or interact with him. “Our duty was only to guard and escort him during a part of his journey.”
The Dalai Lama also presented silk shawl to Das. For the Assam Rifles, he also signed an old photograph of his during his journey into India.
