Actor Richard Gere listens as the Dalai Lama (below) speaks at the session in Bodhgaya on Sunday. (AFP and Reuters)

Bodhgaya, Jan. 1: The students numbered some 50,000, but you could hear a pin drop.

They were, after all, learning how to shut out the world. And, not often do you get a teacher who happens to be the Dalai Lama.

So they all sat — Indians, Russians, British, Italians, Brazilians, Americans, Germans, Sri Lankans, Cambodians, Japanese, Chinese and, of course, Tibetans — eyes closed, virtually the world compressed under a canopy.

The Tibetan spiritual leader today began preparatory rituals for the 10-day Kalchakra (wheel of time) puja, an important event in the Buddhist calendar.

The rituals involve preparing sand mandalas — ramp-like structures that are actually made of multi-coloured crushed marble but look like sand platforms — which are later purified by mantras.

The crowd listened as the Dalai Lama spoke from a glass enclosure on a dais at the Kalchakra Maidan here. But what was remarkable was the diversity of the gathering that had come to learn the “art of training the mind”, as the septuagenarian leader put it.

“The Dalai Lama has taught us how the mind can be trained to live free from stress,” said Dimitry Kshenovsky, who has come from Siberia with wife Julie and sister Wasilisa.

“Our parents were not allowed to practise religion in the then USSR,” added the 26-year-old university student. “Now, the new political order that has replaced the communist order has provided us the freedom to express our religiosity.”

Jeremy, a disciple from Britain, explained the concept behind the Kalchakra puja. “Siddhartha Gautama Buddha had imparted complex lessons in meditation to the king of Shambala, a Central Asian kingdom then, and his subjects,” he said. “What the Dalai Lama does through the Kalchakra puja is repeat the lessons to the world what Gautama Buddha had given to the Central Asian king.”

Hollywood actor Richard Gere, known for his reverence to the Dalai Lama, said: “Bodhgaya is the ultimate destination. It’s the place from where the concept of peace and tranquillity have originated.... I pray for peace in the world and liberation of Tibet.”

While thousands of foreigners have converged in Bodhgaya, the place where Buddha attained enlightenment, thousands of residents of Siddhartha Nagar, a small township in this pilgrim centre, have left their homes to live under polythene tents.

No, they haven’t renounced worldly comfort like Prince Gautama. They are just making some quick money by renting out to the foreign visitors their homes built under the Indira Awaas Yojana welfare scheme.

“We get Rs 3,000-12,000 for renting our houses to the foreigners,” said Bijli Majhi, a father of five who has moved into a small tent.

Sources in the administration and the office set up by the Tibetan government-in-exile revealed that over 1.5 lakh people from at least 40 countries had gathered here for the occasion.

Asked if she was aware that the government had built the Indira Awaas homes for the poor, Nicolini Denise, who has hired a plot, said the houseowners were “smart”.

“There is nothing wrong if they are giving us their houses or plots to earn some money. You should not condemn them,” said the French woman. “After all, they are poor.”