Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 17: The Central Ghoton Organising Committee of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on Monday commemorated the 75th anniversary of His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama’s assumption of spiritual and temporal leadership of Tibet at the courtyard of the Thekchen Choeling Tsughlakhang in Dharamshala.
The ceremony was graced by the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and attended by Her Excellency Dr. Eliska Zigova, Czech Ambassador to India, and Yashbir Singh, IFS, Liaison Officer of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Former liaison officers and DSPs who had served His Holiness in Dharamshala were also present.
In her address, Czech Ambassador Dr. Eliska Zigova drew a poignant parallel between the day’s commemoration and the historical significance of 17 November for the Czech people, marking the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which peacefully ended four decades of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. She recalled how President Vaclav Havel, newly released from prison in the wake of the revolution, became the nation’s first democratic president and promptly invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Prague, forging a deep moral and political bond between Tibet and Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic.
Reflecting on leadership, Ambassador Zigova spoke of the universal need for wise, compassionate, and principled guidance in all spheres of life, within families, schools, and nations. She highlighted His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s exemplary spiritual and temporal leadership, noting how his life continues to inspire people globally. She revisited the immense responsibility placed on the young 15-year-old Dalai Lama in 1950, the turbulent years that followed, the 1959 escape into exile, and His Holiness’s immediate efforts upon arriving in India to establish schools and homes for Tibetan children.
Recalling her visit earlier this year to the Tibetan Homes Foundation School in Mussoorie, she expressed admiration for the students’ education, care, and especially their continued fluency in Tibetan, now preserved into the third generation in exile. She expressed optimism for the future of the Tibetan nation and offered prayers for the long life of His Holiness, whom she described as a spiritual leader cherished far beyond the Tibetan community.
The commemoration featured a gratitude offering to His Holiness by former students of seven residential Central School for Tibetans (CST) institutions across India, alongside students from Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) Dharamshala, Tibetan Homes Foundation Mussoorie, and Tibetan day schools in India and Nepal. The event was also attended by CTA leadership, including President Penpa Tsering and Speaker of the 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel.
CTA President Penpa Tsering and Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel also delivered the official statements of the Cabinet and the Tibetan Parliament in Exile. Their addresses highlighted the far-reaching impact of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s leadership since the age of 16, from his early efforts to seek common ground and resolve the Tibet–China conflict during the PRC’s initial occupation of Tibet, to the later articulation of the Middle Way Approach. They highlighted His Holiness’s unwavering commitment to improving the welfare of ordinary Tibetans and his historic reforms to democratise the Tibetan political system during some of the most difficult periods in Tibet’s modern history.
