Arunachal gets country's fourth Buddhist centre

Arunachal Pradesh, where around 13 per cent of the population follows Buddhism, has got its first full-fledged Buddhist centre after Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. 
 

The Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies at Dahung in West Kameng district, where a majority of the people follow Tibetan Buddhism, is now a full-fledged central institute, according to its founder Tsona Gontse Rinpoche.

The institute, conceived by Rinpoche in 2000, had received the nod of the Union Cabinet on May 26, 2010 with a project cost estimated at Rs 9 crore and recurring annual cost of Rs 124.86 lakh. 

The Buddhist population of the state resides in the region's Tawang, West Kameng, remote regions which are close to Tibet and near the Myanmar border.

Tibetan Buddhism is practised in the first three regions while Therevada Buddhism reigns supreme in the lives of people living near the Myanmarese border.