Dharamshala, a small town in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in India is well known worldwide as the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Recently there has been reduced teachings from His Holiness in the town and the Karmapa too has not been present there. It has significantly hit the tourism according to reports.
Dharamshala misses its spiritual patrons, writes a report in The Tribune which quoted the ground experiences from the local business people. The primary attraction for foreign tourists to the far Indian town was the Tibetan spiritual leaders headed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Besides efforts to relax the schedules of the 83 year old Tibetan spiritual leader, in the past couple of years, His Holiness’s winter programs were consecutively programmed in the Buddhist holy place, Bodhgaya.
In addition to that, the second most influential Tibetan spiritual icon, 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, the head of Kagyue sect of Tibetan Buddhism has been absent from Dharamshala. While the Karmapa has large number of devotees from various foreign countries especially Asian Buddhist, he has been on an extended stay in the United States since he departed from India in May 2017.
The spiritual essence of the teachings by the Tibetan leaders are the main reasons thousands of tourists, mainly Westerners and Asians visiting the Himalayan hill town. Since the foreigners visits have been a huge blessing for the tourism business, the business community is now alleging a downward trend of foreigners footfalls, affecting their fortunes significantly!