On a visit to the border village of Turtuk (Ladakh) in 2005, the then seventy-year-old Dalai Lama accepted the gift of a walking cane as the harbinger, not of ageing, but of a long life. The villagers—whose people were a composite of tribes from Iran, Tibet, Dard, and Mongolia— held the Dalai Lama in deep affection and regard, and spoke of him as a “rehnuma” (leader or guide).