It is remarkable that India, which does not profess to be a Buddhist country, never ceases to deliberate on Buddha’s words and teachings including his moral, social and ethical precepts. Through the efforts of King Ashoka, ruler of the Mauryan Empire in India, Buddhist missionaries were sent to various far-flung regions to propagate Buddhist faith and culture. India feels a sense of pride in owning the Buddha as one of its glorious teachers, and in being the children of a country which produced the Buddha.

Modern Hindu culture has many elements of Buddhism. Hindus consider the Buddha a maker and reformer of Hinduism and worship him as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in Kaliyuga. This part of Kaliyuga is rather considered to be the Buddha’s era. In Buddhism’s original Pali texts, the pantheon of Brahmanism has been accorded the highest respect.

In the Buddhist text ‘Milindapanha’ which dates from sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD, hundreds of crores of Arhats, Buddhists who have attained enlightenment, go to Indra and request him to approach Devaputra Mahasena and make him agree to take rebirth as Nagasena. The Tantric pantheon of Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism is almost identical. Tara, Vajrayogini, Kali, Camunda, Saraswati, Varaha, Ganesha, etc. are worshipped by both.

Buddhism has a deep cultural impact on the Indian psyche. For Indians Buddhism is not simply a religion or merely a philosophy, but a psycho-ethical system and a way of life as well. Even without becoming a Buddhist in the sectarian sense, a large chunk of the Indian population believes in and practices the Buddha’s message of ethics and values. The Buddha’s images and especially his head are the most popular piece of art which we commonly see in drawing rooms.

In contemporary times, the Dalai Lama which means "Ocean of Wisdom," manifests the continuity of Buddhist spiritual leadership and as a symbol of compassion and wisdom. Believed to be the reincarnation of ‘Avalokiteshvara,’ the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the Dalai Lama, was recognized as the reincarnation of the 14^th Dalai Lama at the age of two. As a Buddhist monk, the Dalai Lama has dedicated his life to promoting peace, compassion, and understanding. After fleeing to India in 1959 following the Chinese invasion of Tibet, he became a symbol of Tibetan nationhood and has worked tirelessly to preserve its culture and religion.

The long personal history of the Dalai Lama’s own family with Sikkim, both before and after its accession into India in 1975, encapsulates the rich and intertwined religious, linguistic and cultural identity and natural affinity of the peoples of the Tibetan plateau and India, that transcends borders.

The life stories of Bakula Rinpoche of Ladakh or Khunnu Lama Rinpoche of Kinnaur, both of whom spent years studying in the scholastic monasteries of Tibet, moving back and forth between India and Tibet at whim, and in the case of Bakula Rinpoche, going on to play key roles in the Buddhist renaissance of Mongolia, as well as recalibrating Ladakh’s identity with demands to recognise Bhoti as an official language of India is just a few of the countless arresting histories of the easy trans-Himalayan relationship with India. Indeed, the 6^th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, even chose to be born in Arunachal Pradesh.

Over the decades, India has provided sanctuary to the Dalai Lama, as he resides in the hillside town of Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.

His Holiness is constantly thanking India, for hosting him as its longest-staying official guest since 1959, and for all the country has done in exile. This says a lot about his graciousness and humility, for in fact, it’s his presence in the country that has truly resurrected in contemporary times its standing as the land of the Buddha Shakyamuni and the origin of Buddhism at an international level, while also rejuvenating the practice of Buddhist belief in the entire Himalayan region, towards a more engaged study and sophisticated understanding of its philosophy as opposed to mere ritual and dogma.

With him ageing, there is a growing unanimity within the establishment in New Delhi that the government should come out in open support of the Dalai Lama by endorsing his wishes for the appointment of his successor.

The bulwark of His Holiness the Dalai Lama as its jewel in the crown. Prime Minister Modi took great pride in showcasing the backdrop of the Nalanda University ruins at the G20 inaugural meeting of world leaders in September 2023.

India has its greatest living proponent in the personhood of the Dalai Lama, whose reputation and influence extends not only to the entire Himalayan belt but also to the West. India's role in these matters is not just about supporting the Dalai Lama but also about leveraging its historical and cultural ties to Buddhism to promote peace, cooperation, and regional stability.