Thousands of people flocked to a Washington arena on Wednesday to celebrate the 76th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who urged followers to mark the occasion by practicing compassion.
The Verizon Center in the US capital’s Chinatown was transformed into little Tibet, with vendors selling handicrafts from the Himalayan land and intricate mandalas hanging incongruously underneath advertisements for fast food.
Tibetan monks and nuns folded their hands with reverence and US supporters broke into an impromptu rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” as the Dalai Lama came on stage to mark the start of a 10-day ritual known as a kalachakra.
“Some people ask me for some message for my birthday celebrations. I always say, the best gift to me is to practice compassion,” the Dalai Lama said, advising the crowd to look into their minds and hearts.
“Happiness — it is not money, it is not material things, it is not power,” he said. “It is [inside], full of self-confidence.”
The Dalai Lama, who fled Chinese rule of his homeland in 1959, recently said that he was stepping down from his political role and handing over to a newly elected prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
“For the last few decades, I always said that religious institutions and political institutions are separate, but I myself combined the two,” he said
The Dalai Lama was scheduled to meet yesterday with US lawmakers including House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the top House member from US President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party.
The White House has stayed mum on whether Obama will meet the Dalai Lama, a move that would be certain to anger China, which has tried for years to isolate the Tibetan spiritual leader despite his global popularity.
US Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero and the Dalai Lama spoke about US support “for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity, and the protection of human rights in the People’s Republic of China,” the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nepal, Tibet’s neighbor which is careful not to upset China, banned public celebrations of the Dalai Lama’s birthday, with riot police arresting three Tibetan exiles and preventing hundreds more from attending a party.
The Dalai Lama enjoyed shows of support at his birthday party. South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu saluted the Dalai Lama as a great friend in a videotaped message.
Martin Luther King III, the son of the slain US civil rights leader, appeared on stage with the Dalai Lama and hailed him as a “tireless champion of compassion, human rights and peace.”
Organizers expected some 10,000 people to turn out during the kalachakra, in which disciples meditate for peace as part of their quest for enlightenment. The ritual, which was last held more than five years ago in India, includes the building and destruction of a sand mandala to symbolize the transience of life.
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