The Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of the Tibetan people, will inaugurate the main conference announcing the 80th Sivagiri pilgrimage at the Sivagiri Math on November 24.
The three-day pilgrimage will open on December 30.
“His holiness the Dalai Lama took special initiative to attend this conference as he could not accept our invitation last year. He will be attending the conference from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the day,” Swami Rhithambharananda, general secretary, Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust, told a press conference here on Monday.
The Sivagiri Math is organising a number of meetings across the country to publicise this year’s pilgrimage.
Arrangements are also being made at Sivagiri for accommodating pilgrims, trust officials said. “We are putting up a three-storeyed temporary structure that can accommodate thousands of people who will be attending the conference,” Trust secretary Swami Guruprasad said. Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust president Swami Prakashananda will preside over the function.
Speaker G Karthikeyan and Philipose Mar Chrysostom Valiya Metropolitan of the Marthoma Church will speak on the occasion.