The scent of juniper, the sound of bagpipes and a display of Japanese archery will fill the grounds at Halifax's historic Citadel today, to kick off an extravagant three-day festival before a royal Buddhist wedding in the city this weekend.

More than 1,300 followers, some from as far away as Tibet, India and Europe, are expected to attend Saturday's wedding of Sakyong Jamgon Mipham -- the leader of Shambhala Buddhism -- and Tibetan princess Tseyang Palmo.

The Sakyong, son of the movement's founder Chogyam Trungpa, is the spiritual leader of more than 10,000 Shambhala Buddhists around the world.

The couple met at a Buddhist monastery in India in February, 2005 after a performance by Palmo's dance company. They met for tea the next day, exchanged many long distance phone calls and text messages, and two months later, they were engaged during their second meeting in Westchester, N.Y.

Celebrations kick off today with an outdoor ceremony mixed with Asian and Celtic-Canadian influences in the historic military fort at Halifax's Citadel Hill. After cleansing the air by burning juniper, the 78th Highlanders will play a bagpipe melody, followed by a Mi'kmaq First Nation wedding song and a demonstration of archery by a Japanese bow maker.

The Sakyong is a direct descendant of the legendary Tibetan warrior-king Gesar of Ling. Like his father, he's a best-selling author. He also runs marathons, writes poetry and is an expert calligrapher.

There are about 1,000 followers in the Maritimes of Shambhala -- a form of Tibetan Buddhism that Sakyong's father is credited with bringing to the West. Its teachings are based on creating an enlightened kingdom by training the mind through meditation.

Today, there are 175 Shambhala centres and groups around the world, including more than two dozen across Canada.

In the 1970s, Chogyam Trungpa established Naropa University -- the first accredited Buddhist University -- in Boulder, Co.

"Really without ever having been here, although he came here shortly after, (Trungpa) came to the view that this was the kind of decent society within which Buddhism could have a reasonable home," Shambhala follower Warrior General Martin Janowitz told CTV Newsnet.

"Following that five or six hundred of his students moved from other parts of North America and Europe to Nova Scotia and are now sprinkled all throughout Atlantic Canada," said Janowitz, who is a senior teacher in the Shambhala principles.

He decided to relocate with his son to Halifax in 1986, bringing hundreds of his students with him.

While seen as a major pioneer of Tibetan Buddhism and a master of meditation throughout North America and Europe, Chogyam Trungpa's lifestyle made him one of the most controversial leaders of the religion. Reports in his later years of heavy drinking and an active sex life with his students overshadowed his spiritual accomplishments for some of his followers.

Trungpa died of alcohol-related liver failure in 1987.

Tseyang Palmo's family, meanwhile, heads another stream of Tibetan Buddhism called Ripa.

As the daughter of Terton Namkha Drimed Rabjam, she holds the title of "noble daughter" or Sema -- an honorific similar to "princess" used by families of the Tibetan nobility.

Once she's married to the Sakyong, she will be referred to by the Tibetan title Khandro which is traditional for the wife of a high lama, or Tibetan priest.

"In the Tibetan world, there's very much of a clan

approach and so the Mukpo clan of Sakyong Mipham and the Ripa clan of Sema Tseyang are two of the important spiritual groups in Tibet," Janowitz said.

"Sakyong Mipham has spent virtually his entire life in India or in North America and Tseyang has mostly been in the Himalayas, so here we have those two worlds coming together."

The couple will settle in Halifax in a house built by Shambhala International that will be paid for, in part, by wedding gifts of cash.

Among the invited guests for Saturday's wedding are New Democrat MP Alexa McDonough, Nova Scotia Lt.-Gov. Myra Freeman, and This Hour has 22 Minutes comedian Cathy Jones -- a Shambhala practitioner.

"This is not just a wedding for the couple and for their families, but the wedding serves as an offering to Nova Scotians, because they've been so hospitable welcoming us into the community," wedding planner Wendy Friedman told The Canadian Press. "We've really put down roots here."

With files from The Canadian Press