Hundreds of Buddhists in southern Russia yesterday marched through snow to see and hear the Dalai Lama as he continued a long-awaited visit to the country in spite of Chinese protests.
Nearly a thousand residents of the Buddhist region of Kalmykia walked through heavily-falling snow to a monastery outside the capital Elista, where Tibet's spiritual leader was due to speak later in the day.
PHOTO: AP
Yesterday marked the second of a three-day visit to Kalmykia by the Dalai Lama, the first time in eight years that he has been allowed onto Russian territory, and only the second time has visited the Buddhist region.
"I would like to express my greeting to my longtime friends," he said on Monday after flying in from New Delhi.
"My main interest is promotion of human values because I believe that in order to have a happy human community and in order to have a happy family, the basic human values are the foundation," he said.
Monday marked the Dalai Lama's first trip to Kalmykia since 1992, when he made a tour of Russia's Buddhist regions that also included Buryatia and Tyva in Siberia.
"Even if it is a short visit, it is very important for us," said Telo Rinpoche, the spiritual chief of Buddhists in Kalmykia. "Thanks to the support of His Holiness the Dalai Lama there has been great progress in the renaissance of the Buddhist faith in Kalmykia."
Local residents have been asked to abstain from smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages and authorities have promised to close all casinos in Elista and its environs during the Dalai Lama's three-day sojourn.
Kalmykia's flamboyant leader Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has held regular visits with the spiritual leader and has tirelessly campaigned for his visit to Russia.
It is the first time the Dalai Lama has been allowed onto Russian territory since 1996, when he passed through on his way to Mongolia. Russia has resisted other visits because of pressure from China.
China, which has ruled Tibet since 1951, regularly protests over the frequent travels of the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of being a separatist.
After Moscow announced that it would issue him a visa last Friday, Beijing stressed that it was "against any country having official relations with him."
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS