Fortunate to Visit Amaravati Again: Dalai Lama

Vijayawada: Buddhist spiritual leader The Dalai Lama has said he was fortunate to be once again visiting Amaravati, a sacred place for Buddhists.

He reached on Thursday on a three-day visit to Andhra Pradesh.

State legislative assembly speaker K. Sivaprasad Rao, ministers and senior officials received him at the Gannavarm Airport here.

The Buddhist leader left for Amaravati, a place of Buddhist pilgrimage, where Buddha was believed to have given his first Kalachakra sermon. Amaravati is where is the new capital of the residual Andhra Pradesh is being built.

"I feel fortunate to be in the sacred place of Amaravati once again," the 81-year-old told reporters at the airport.

The Nobel Laureate said he was happy in the place associated with Nagarjuna, the great Indian Buddhist philosopher.

He said Amaravati becoming the state capital of Andhra Pradesh will augur well.

He will address the first National Women's Parliament, beginning at Amaravati on Friday.

This is Dalai Lama's second visit to Amaravati. He had last visited the place in 2006 to initiate Kalachakra, a huge gathering of Buddhists.