05 January 2006
Dalai Lama launches Kalachakra
The Dalai Lama formally launched the 12-day Kalachakra ceremony with prayers and an address during which he claimed that the teachings of Buddha were relevant to the modern day world. The address was translated into English and various Indian languages for a crowd of about 40,000 people who gathered in the town of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, India. Though most are Indian, Nepalis or Tibetan, a large contingent of international participants also came to attend the ceremony. There is an usual great number of Tibetans from Tibet among the participants, with unconfirmed estimations before the ceremony going up to 8,000. However, among these the disproportional number of elder people and people from rural regions rather than from Lhasa indicate that the issuing of travel documents by the Chinese authorities has been selective. The Dalai Lama called for the spread of the message of love and peace through inter-faith dialogue and said happiness came from the promotion of human values, and that the Kalachakra teachings were aimed at the development of inner values.