The Dalai Lama had arrived in India 65 years before

Following turmoil in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, the Dalai Lama fled to Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, on March 31, 1959, sixty-five years ago. On March 17 of that year, he had left Lhasa.

The entourage that arrived was accompanied by a battalion of the 5 Assam Rifles, who were assigned to the boundary station of Chuthangmu in the Kameng Division. The bodyguards of the Dalai Lama handed up their weapons to the Indian government in Chuthangmu. After that, 12,000 refugees were escorted by the Assam Rifles across the Kameng Frontier Division.

The Assam Rifles received personal weaponry from the Dalai Lama. As keepsakes, these guns are on display at the Assam Rifles Museum in Shillong. The Dalai Lama visited Havildar Naren Chandra Das (retd) of the 5 Assam Rifles, who had accompanied him in 1959, in April 2017 while on a visit to Guwahati.