ID :
325561
Mon, 04/21/2014 - 12:12
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Dalai Lama’s Japan tour ends with audiences for Tibetans, Mongolians and Chinese

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Before leaving for the airport in Japan and his flight back to India this morning, His Holiness the Dalai Lama made time to meet separately with groups of Chinese, Mongolians and Tibetans. This new was published at dalailama.com, on April 18. According to that news, meeting a group of about 50 Mongolians His Holiness praised the friendship and cultural ties Tibetans and Mongolians have long shared. “In the 20th century you faced great tragedy and Buddhism in Mongolia went into decline. Tibetans are facing similar problems now. But relations between Tibetans and Mongolians go back hundreds of years to when we roamed the land as nomads. Now that you have regained your freedom, you must use the opportunity well. There are too many examples in Africa of what can go wrong when freedom and democracy are misused. With democracy comes responsibility. Today, Mongolians place great faith in the Dharma, but faith based on reason is even firmer and more stable, so study is important. In the past there were many great scholars who came from Mongolia. However, understanding of Buddhism needs to be combined with basic modern education. Tibet was backward in terms of modern education and technological development and we lost our country,” he said at the meeting. His Holiness advised Mongolians to emulate the determination exemplified by their people at the time of Genghis Khan. But today they need that kind of courage combined with intelligence. He said that he has also counselled Indians to focus development efforts in villages, not only in cities. Schools, hospitals and other facilities need to be provided to people in the rural areas where they live. He recalled that there are now 300 Mongolian monks studying in the main Tibetan monasteries in South India who will be able to contribute to the flourishing of the Dharma in the future. His Holiness then drove directly to Narita airport to board his flight to India. Representative Lhakpa Tshoko, who will shortly be transferred to Australia, Lungtok, who is to be his successor as Representative in Japan and East Asia and Tsering Dorje from the Representative’s office, were all there to see him off at the end of a successful two weeks in Japan.

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