By Tsering Tashi
Copenhagen, Denmark, June 9 – The 5-day Buddhist teachings concluded here this evening with the offering of the long life prayers to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by Lakha Rinpoche, chairman of Tibet Charity that had organised the teachings. In the morning the Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader gave a special audience to Ngawang Sangdrol, the young internationally-known former Tibetan political prisoner.
After having about an hour-long audience, Ngawang Sangdrol came out of the room full of joy and at peace with herself. Now aged 26, Ngawang Sangdrol was first arrested by the Chinese authorities in 1990 as a young 13-year-old Buddhist nun. She became known as one of Tibet’s longest serving female political prisoners, until her release early this year. On 6th May she arrived in Switzerland from the United States at the invitation of the Swiss government to receive medical treatment and is since being looked after by the Office of Tibet and the Tibetan community there.
”The audience with His Holiness completely gave peace to my mind and body. Because of the audience excitement, I have been awake today since 3 a.m.,” Ngawang Sangdrol told Thupten Geleg, the Europe correspondent of the VOA (Tibetan language service) this afternoon.
This statement clearly indicated her settled frame of mental and physical composure since the opportunity to see His Holiness which a few days back she had told this write that it was like a ”dream”. In the morning when asked to comment on the audience by a German TV reporter waiting at the lobby of the down town hotel where His Holiness and entourage are staying, Ngawang Sangdrol, apparently overwhelmed by the experience, managed to give only a brief response.
”I had a wonderful audience with His Holiness. Right now, I am unable to say anything. I am so overwhelmed that I have no words to describe the audience,” said Ngawang Sangdrol with a smile. She then dashed off to the waiting taxi to take her to the venue of His Holiness’ teaching which she had been regularly attending since it began on Thursday.
By afternoon Ngawang Sangdrol had felt fairly comfortable to answer questions from the media people who have have been curious to report on her reaction to the audience with His Holiness, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989 for leading the non-violent Tibetan struggle for freedom.
”I was able to inform His Holiness about everything that I had wanted to and His Holiness gave me a lot of advice. He told me to take care of my health and study hard,” said Ngawang Sangdrol, before adding, ”His gave me some precious Tibetan pills.”
During her stay here, Ngawang Sangdrol’s humility and intelligence has won much admiration. The talk that she gave the other day to members of the Tibetan community in Denmark brought spontaneous tears and many people were moved by her public talk organised by the Danish Tibet Support Group.
”Though young, Ngawang Sangdrol is very focused. I found her greatly inspired by the opportunity to receive His Holiness’ teachings, seeing him on several occasions and finally receiving the audience this morning,” said Mrs. Kesang Y. Takla, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Northern Europe, based at the Office of Tibet in London. As the representative, Mrs. Takla coordinates and accompanies His Holiness during all his visit programmes to Scandinavia, Finland, Iceland, UK and Ireland. Mrs. Takla also was pleased by the success of His Holiness’ visit and the warmth with which the people received His Holiness.
”I am glad both the visits by His Holiness to Sweden and Denmark were highly successful. Wherever His Holiness went it was very moving to see how the people were greeting him with great respect and warm feelings. They looked so joyful in seeing His Holiness,” said Mrs. Takla.
According to Lakha Rinpoche many people were thankful for the good arrangements and happy with His Holiness’ teachings. He also said that the success of the teaching programme was all due to the efforts of the Tibet Charity members, volunteers, security and venue staff and most of all his wife, Pia Lakha.
His Holiness’ teachings on ”The Six Paramitas Leading to Ultimate Liberation” at the invitation of the Tibet Charity was daily attended by 2100 people and was given in Tibetan with English, Danish and German translations. The Paramita is a Sanskrit word meaning to transcend the mundane level and achieve mental perfection in the given practice. Tibet Charity, founded in 1997 by Lakha Rinpoche supports the preservation of Tibetan culture and the Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal.
The other highlights of His Holiness’ visit here included meetings held earlier with the Danish Prime Minister, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the Foreign Minister, Mr. Per Stig Moller, both of whom publicly expressed strong support for His Holiness’ non-violent approach in resolving the issue of Tibet through dialogue with the Chinese leadership.
