His Holiness the Dalai Lama imparts three days teachings to South Asians On request by a large group of South Asians, His Holiness the Dalai Lama delivered a three day spiritual teaching to his Buddhists devotees at the Tsuglakhang temple in McLeod Ganj. The teachings began on the morning of August 30 and went on till afternoon of September 1. The topic of the teaching was Shantideva’s “Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life”. At the outset His Holiness said “The purpose of this sort of gathering is to achieve happy life, a successful life, that’s what I believe is the main purpose or main goal. The proper way to achieve happy life successful life is not only money, power material but ultimately much depends on mental state.” The specific south Asian group consisted of over 500 members collectively from Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Spain, Hong Kong and a over a dozen members from mainland China.
Photo By: White House
Over 5,000 registered visitors from 54 countries along with thousands of local Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people attended the three day teachings. His Holiness spoke at length stressing the importance of ‘inner values’ and ‘compassion’ as he began the teaching. He spoke to the audience in
English for over an hour, cracking a few jokes in between about mosquitoes, noting that he let mosquitoes have his blood out of compassion and they did not show any appreciation in return and just flew off. On the last day of the teaching during the second half, visitors from South (continued on page 4)
Dr. Lobsang Sangay takes political power
Photo By: David Huang
by Joe Riina-Ferrie On August 8th at the Tsuglagkhang temple complex, Lobsang Sangay was inaugurated as the third democratically elected Kalon Tripa, or political chief executive, of the Tibetan government in exile. He was the first to be elected after the Dalai Lama’s announcement that he would withdraw from political power. Following a flag raising ceremony and the singing of the Tibetan national anthem, Dr. Sangay took the oath of (continued on page 5)