Dalai Lama To Visit Twin Cities
Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama, plans to make his first visit to the Twin Cities in May 2001. Clark D. Morphew
The event has been spearheaded by the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota and the Tibetan Association of Minnesota. The Dalai Lama's appearance will be called ``Compassion and Peace in a New Century.''
"The Dalai Lama visits many different places in the United States, but he has not visited the Twin Cities,'' said Thinly Woser, a native Tibetan who now lives in Minneapolis. "So this is very important to this city. He does travel throughout the world with his message of compassion, peace, understanding and dialogue.''
Woser, 44, worked with the Dalai Lama for 23 years in the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India.
"Generally, we Tibetans believe he speaks to us, but now he is a world leader,'' Woser said. "He is coming to speak to all people here in the Twin Cities.''
Woser is co-chair of the Dalai Lama's appearance along with Mary Ann Lundquist, a Unitarian who helped initiate the original resettlement of Tibetan Buddhists in the Twin Cities.
"Over 700 Tibetans now live in the Twin Cities,'' Lundquist said. "It is the second-largest population of Tibetans in the United States, and it continues to grow -- a new family arrived just the other day. People are now moving here from other cities because they have relatives here and because Minnesota is so friendly and affordable.''
The Twin Cities is home to about 20,000 Buddhists in 34 different temples and meditation groups, according to John Mayer of Religion Information Resources in Minneapolis. During a 17-day fund-raising tour of the United States in 1999, the Dalai Lama drew crowds ranging from 3,200 at Chicago's Field Museum to an estimated 40,000 in New York.
The Dalai Lama, 65, left Tibet in 1959 after nearly a decade of bloody protests and broken promises from the government of China, which had captured the country in 1950 and turned the democratic government into communist rule.
The Dalai Lama appealed to Chinese rulers for many years, asking them to withdraw and return the country to the Tibetan people. Finally, in desperation, he dressed as a soldier and crossed the treacherous Himalaya Mountains into India. He settled in Dharamsala and vowed not only to establish a democratic government but also to preserve the culture and religion of Tibet. The Dalai Lama's life mission is to return peace to his homeland.
In 1989 he was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote unity and understanding among the religions and countries of the world.
Lundquist, 49, said Minnesotans have made many contacts with the Dalai Lama over the years. The local Buddhist community recently sent a letter to the God-King of Tibet inviting him to the Twin Cities, and other people have also taken copies of that letter to him when they visited Dharamsala, she said.
In 1998, Marilyn Mason, a local representative of the Tibetan American Foundation and the Tibetan Association of Minnesota, visited the Dalai Lama in India and presented a scrapbook of the Twin Cities Tibetan community, Lundquist said.
The local advisory committee is busy making final arrangements and securing funds for the many events. Planners hope to announce event times and locations in the next two months.
"Actually, it does not cost much to bring the entourage for His Holiness, but we will have to raise money for the events happening in the Twin Cities,'' Lundquist said. "But we feel there will be so much interest in his visit and, given the openness of the community, we believe we will be able to do it without difficulty.
"For people in the Twin Cities this will be one of the major events of the year 2001,'' Lundquist said. "The Dalai Lama will be here for a number of events, and many of those appearances will not be religious. This will be a major event with a renowned world leader."
