Naropa Festival ends in Ladakh with world record in dance
Leh, Sep 21 : A total of 299 women dressed up in traditional Ladakhi wedding attire danced together to mark the last day of the Naropa festival and also created a Guinness World Record in the process.
The women, aged between 18 and 60, wore heavy coat-like 'gongchas' with 'perak' headgear as they danced on Thursday at an altitude of over 4,500 metres above sea level at Hemis, a Buddhist monastery situated 45 km from Leh.
Swapnil Dangarikar, Official Adjudicator, Guinness World Records declared the dance performance as the 'Largest Ladakhi Dance' by Live to Love, Pel Drupka Charitable Trust and Young Drukpa Association Ladakh at Hemis.
"They have broken the record with 299 successful participants. This is a new Guinness World Record title... With this I declare that all of you are officially amazing," Dangarikar, who looks after records happening in India and Southeast Asia, said on Thursday.
Thousands of people from across the Himalayas gathered at Hemis to celebrate the life of Buddhist philosopher and scholar Naropa, who lived between 1016 to 1100 CE, in their tradition ways with singing and cultural events.
The five-day festival, started on Sunday to celebrate 1,000 plus years of the life of Naropa, also witnessed unfurling of 85-feet thangka -- Buddhist painting on cloth -- which the monastery claimed to be "the largest silk-embroidered brocade of Buddha" in India.
Situated on a hill-top, Hemis is a calm place which only witnesses crowds during the festival season.
Famous as the Himalayan Kumbh, the Naropa Festival is celebrated after every 12 years of the Tibetan calendar.
The festival, however, took place this time after two years as many of the devotees could not attend it in 2016. The monastery is also planning to make it an annual event from this year onwards.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, one of the members of the organising committee said that the festival is a platform to "showcase the rich and divine heritage of the Himalayan region".
"It is a platform for all to come together and to encourage our people and artists.
"It is a platform to meet and interact with the followers of the Drupka Lineage from India, Tibet, and other parts of the world. It is also a platform to exchange the teachings of the Buddha dharama. It is also a platform to learn the culture of Ladakh," he added.
The celebration included teaching lessons of Naropa, prayers and religious performances by monks and nuns.
A traditional archery competition, fashion show and performances by local and Bollywood artists, including singers Kailash Kher, Papon and Sonu Nigam also took place during the festival.
The holy relics of Naropa -- whose life is celebrated during the festival -- were brought in a grand procession to the Naro Photang, situated three kilometers from the monastery.
The followers of Drupka Lineage from India, Tibet, and other parts of the world queued for hours to see the relics put on display.
The holy relics are the six bone ornaments of Naropa and are one of the most revered relics of Buddhism and historic symbols of the great Himalayan odyssey. Naropa wore the rnaments upon achieving enlightenment.A
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HC questions Delhi govt over failure to regulate sale of old vehicles, refers to Red Fort blast
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court questioned the city government on Wednesday over its failure to regulate the sale and transfer of used vehicles, while pointing out that in a recent bomb blast near the Red Fort, a second-hand car was used, making the issue more significant.
A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the Delhi government to file a detailed response on the issue of regulating authorised dealers of registered vehicles.
"A car changes four hands but the original owner has not changed. Therefore, what happens? That man (the original owner) goes to the slaughterhouse? What is this? How are you permitting this? You will take a call when two-three more bomb blasts take place?" the bench asked the Delhi government's counsel.
The bomb blast near the iconic Mughal-era monument was carried out using a second-hand car, making the issue even more significant, it said.
The court listed the matter for further hearing in January 2026.
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The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) plea filed by an organisation, Towards Happy Earth Foundation, highlighting the challenges in the implementation of rules 55A to 55H of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, introduced in December 2022 to regulate authorised dealers of registered vehicles.
While the rules were intended to bring accountability to the second-hand vehicle market, the petitioner's counsel argued that they have failed in practice due to regulatory gaps and procedural hurdles.
The plea said there is a major gap in the amended framework, that is, the absence of any statutory mechanism for reporting dealer-to-dealer transfers.
"In reality, most used vehicles pass through multiple dealers before reaching the final buyer, but the rules recognise only the first transfer to the initial authorised dealer.
"As a result, the chain of custody breaks after the first step, defeating the very purpose of accountability," the petition said.
It added that because of these gaps, only a very small percentage of dealers across India have been able to obtain authorised dealer registration and in Delhi, not a single dealer has got it.
Consequently, lakhs of vehicles continue to circulate without any record of who is actually in possession of those, it said.
The plea said only a small fraction of India's estimated 30,000 to 40,000 used-vehicle dealers are registered under the authorised-dealer framework.
The petition also pointed out that the 11-year-old vehicle used in the November 10 bomb blast near the Red Fort was sold several times but was still registered in its original owner's name.
The blast near the Red Fort had claimed 15 lives.
