Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu at Neh-Pema Shelpu Drupkhang on April 8, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Rahul Karmakar
GUWAHATI
A Colonel within the Indian Army apparently sowed the seeds of a Buddhism-Sikhism dispute close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh 36 years in the past.
On April 24, the National Commission for Minorities sought an in depth report from the Arunachal Pradesh authorities over the claim of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) {that a} historic web site related to Guru Nanak Dev in Mechukha had been transformed right into a Buddhist shrine.
Mechukha, additionally spelt Mechuka or Menchukha, is a sub-divisional headquarter of the Shi-Yomi district, perched about 6,000 metres above the imply sea degree. The place is about 30 km from the closest level of the LAC, dividing India and the Tibetan area of China.
The SGPC was seemingly offended by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu taking to social media after a go to to Neh-Pema Shelpu Drupkhang, the shrine claimed to be a gurdwara, on April 8. Mr. Khandu mentioned he provided prayers and sought the blessings on the Buddhist shrine the place Guru Padmasambhava meditated.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu at Neh-Pema Shelpu Drupkhang on April 8, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Rahul Karmakar
The Neh-Nang Cultural Development Society (NNCDS), a Buddhist organisation largely comprising the native Memba neighborhood, has termed the SGPC claim unfair. The complete space beneath the Mechukha sub-division and past had no gurdwara earlier than the Sikh Regiment arrived in 1987 primarily to protect the LAC, the NNCDS mentioned.
“The shrine in contention is a phukp, the local word for a cave, wherein Guru Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoche meditated. The cave has been a pilgrimage for the last 450 years for the Buddhist community inhabiting Mechukha for more than 600 years,” Norbu Naksang, president of the NNCDS instructed The Hindu.
The shrine is about 14 km from Mechukha.
The shrine was appropriated after the Sikh Regiment arrived. Under the command of Colonel Dalvinder Singh Grewal, who claimed that Guru Rinpoche was none aside from Guru Nanak, the troopers regularly started eradicating the Buddhist symbols and sacred objects and changed them with what the Sikhs revere, locals mentioned.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu at Neh-Pema Shelpu Drupkhang on April 8, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Rahul Karmakar
Their solely fault
According to a member of the NNCDS, the “only fault” of the peace-loving locals was to be accommodative — permitting the Sikh troopers some area to hope collectively.
“Soon, the soldiers began objecting to Buddhist rituals, particularly the tradition of offering chhang (local brew) and meat to Guru Padmasambhava, a tantric lama who propagated his form of Buddhism along the Himalayan belt,” the member mentioned.
After years of tolerating the “humiliation in our own backyard”, the NNCDS wrote to Arunachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker, Pasang Dorjee Sona on October 24, 2020. Mr. Sona represents the Mechuka Assembly constituency.
“There is no evidence of any Sikh or Guru Nanak’s influence in the Menchukha area before the advent or deployment of the Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army in 1987,” the NNCDS memorandum learn.
The use of the positioning “forcefully” by the Sikh Regiment “without the consent of the Membas is extremely objectionable”, the NNCDS mentioned whereas regretting the “non-cooperation” of the Army authorities working “on behalf of the gurdwara”.
After receiving the memorandum, Mr. Sona met SGPC normal secretary, Harjinder Singh Dhammi on the Golden Temple in Amritsar on November 1, 2020. “I have proposed a middle path to sort out the issue so that it doesn’t hurt the religious sentiments of each other and both coexist in harmony in the larger interest of religion and humanity,” he posted on a social media platform after the assembly.
He additionally wrote that the SGPC assured him of sending a staff to Mechukha quickly to kind out the difficulty amicably. The SGPC by no means despatched any staff, State authorities officers mentioned.
A staff from the National Commission for Minorities is predicted to go to Arunachal Pradesh in May to check the difficulty.
“The shrine in contention is a phukp, the local word for a cave, wherein Guru Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoche meditated”Norbu NaksangPresident, NNCDS
