Srinagar, May 1 -- There are moments in a nation's life when history does not merely repeat itself - it deepens. This Wednesday, as the sacred relics of Tathagata Buddha descend upon Ladakh for the first time in India on this scale of public veneration, I find myself reaching not for the language of officialdom, but for something far older: reverence.

For centuries, Ladakh has held the flame. Through brutal winters that freeze rivers solid, through geopolitical pressures that would test the sturdiest of souls, through the isolation of altitude and the remoteness of high passes - the people of Ladakh have kept the Dharma alive with a fidelity that humbles every institution and every government. It is entirely fitting, then, that India's f...