Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, July 6: The spiritual heart of the Tibetan diaspora came alive on Sunday as thousands gathered at the Main Tibetan Temple courtyard to celebrate the 90th birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. The celebration, held in Dharamshala—the exile home of the Tibetan leader was organized by the Cabinet of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on behalf of Tibetans across the globe.
Undeterred by torrential rain, devotees, dignitaries, and international guests filled the courtyard in a show of unwavering respect. Among them were Union Cabinet Minister Ravi Rajan Singh; Union Minister Kiren Rijiju; Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu; MP Tapir Gao, Co-convenor of the All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet; Sikkim’s Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Sonam Lama; Ladakh Hill Council Chief Executive Tashi Gyalson and 12 members; MLA Phurba Tsering; Czech Ambassador Eliška Žigová; Sri Lankan MP Harshana Rajakaruna; and Hollywood actor and longtime supporter Richard Gere.
In his address, the Dalai Lama expressed deep gratitude for the joy and reverence shown by those who gathered. He spoke of the universal human values of love and compassion, urging followers to carry forward these ideals. Drawing from Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara, he reflected on his own path of cultivating Bodhicitta—the altruistic aspiration to benefit all sentient beings—and the view of emptiness, the foundations of his spiritual practice.
“If you truly respect me,” he said, “let that be reflected in your commitment to compassion and the path to enlightenment.”
CTA President Penpa Tsering extended his heartfelt greetings to the Dalai Lama and thanked the esteemed guests for their presence. He called on the Tibetan public and the Dalai Lama’s admirers to embody His Holiness’s four principal commitments, adding, “If we follow these commitments, we can truly make this world a better place.”
A major highlight of the event was the broadcast of video tributes from former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama— all of whom have met the Tibetan spiritual leader and praised the Dalai Lama’s tireless advocacy for peace, compassion, and human dignity. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message, read during the event, reaffirmed India’s moral and spiritual solidarity with the Tibetan cause, while Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te also sent his greetings in a show of international support.
As the celebrations concluded, what lingered most was the sense that the Dalai Lama’s message, shaped by a lifetime in exile, continues to resonate across borders, religions, and generations. Even as a stateless monk in a small Himalayan town, His Holiness remains one of the world’s most powerful voices for unity, reminding us all that true leadership is born not from power, but from compassion.
The influence of the Dalai Lama is phenomenal! Thank you Prime Minister Modi for making the gesture of friendship as a Brahmacharya on this special occasion of HH’s 90 birthday! The Dalai Lama and PM Narendra Modi share a common bond in being Brahmacharyas and religious practitioners. PM Modi is a Hindu Dharam Bhakt while HH The Dalai Lama is a Buddhist Dharma Bhakt. No wonder, the Indian PM has done what no other Indian PM has done on HH’s birthday! HH received Greetings from all walks of life! Politicians and National leaders like Former US Presidents, Bill Clinton, George Bush junior, Barrack Obama, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to name a few among many from the Eastern Europe to Latin American leaders sent their birthday Greetings. Indian film stars such as Hemalini and a hord of other young stars and musician sitar maestro Amjad Alikhan greeted him not to speak of artists and spiritual leaders of many religious denominations! It was a truly global representation of the most spectacular personalities that shaped our world in the last three decades! This goes to show the phenomenal influence of the Dalai Lana on the world stage! He is a true icon of peace and compassion that has resonated across the world, shattering superficial differences in religious dogmas and philosophical boundaries! In short the Dalai Lama has won the heart of the world and the whole world hold him in high esteem for his advocacy of love, compassion and brotherhood of mankind. The only people who feel embarrassed for this universal upsurge of reverence to the Dalai Lama are the Chinese communists who can only watch with envy! The battle between Tibet and China ultimately boils down to the power of compassion and the power of the gun! The Dalai Lama has showed that he can win the world without firing a shot through his dissemination of the goodness of compassion while the Chinese communists are trying to dominate the world with bullets and ballistic missiles! Similarly, the battle for Tibetan independence is being fought with the same weapon of non-violence while the Chinese communists are suppressing it with bullets and batons. If the Palestinian struggle for self-determination is any indication, the use of unmitigated violence and killing of thousands of innocent children, women and men have only earned the wrath of the world and made Israel a pariah state on the world stage. This shows that the human empathy for Palestinians only surged despite western media bias against them. The support for Palestine has taken the world by storm. In future, the Tibetan independence movement will also gain traction among the international community if Tibetans are murdered en mass by the violent Chinese communist regime! One hundred and sixty Tibetans have committed self-immolation to protest Chinese occupation of Tibet! Tibetans will continue the struggle to regain our independence like all liberation movements. Rest assured that Chinese unmitigated violence against Tibetans will back fire and will only diminish the standing of the illegitimate regime who has no mandate to rule. The Dalai Lama doesn’t need the CCP’s endorsement. The CCP is a violent, murderous and immoral entity while the Dalai Lama is a holy being who is divine and need no human concocted designations! LONG LIVE HH THE DALAI LAMA!
༄།། གངས་རི་རྭ་བའི་བསྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་
ཕན་དང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས་
སྤྱན་རང་གཟིགས་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་མཆོག་
ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག།།
བོད་རྒྱལ་ལོ།། བོད་རང་བཙན་རྒྱལ་ལོ།།