Celebration of 85th Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Central and Eastern Europe

Geneva: Earlier this week, the world’s most admired and Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, turned 85. Admirers and followers from across the globe joined the celebration and prayed for the global beacon of peace and non-violence to live a healthy and long life.

Despite the unprecedented challenging situation since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein marked the 85th Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with religious ceremony offering prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long live at Tibet Institute Rikon.

Joining the global virtual celebration of 85th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mario Fehr, Member of the Council of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, extended his warmest greetings and thanked His Holiness the Dalai Lama for everything His Holiness has done for the world peace.

“I really hope you can return to Free Tibet very very soon”, said Councillor Mario Fehr.

Volker Bouffier, Minister-President of Hesse, Germany congratulated His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the 85th Birthday.

“You are very close and precious friend of Hesse. We wish you stay healthy” said Minister-President Volker Bouffier in his virtual message to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In his video message to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the 85th Birthday, Prof. Roland Koch, former Minister-President of Hesse, Germany, said “Your Holiness, your thoughts are great hope and your life is great motivation for so many people everywhere. You made an example of life base on good values and tolerance”.

Prof. Roland Koch also celebrated the special relationship between the Hesse people with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.

Karl Schwarzenberg, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, sent warmest wishes to His Holiness, saying  His Holiness’ gift to the world, the spiritual heritage of Tibet, is an “an enormous achievement that we should thank him for what he did, and he is still doing not only for his nation but to the whole world”.

Ivan Havel, younger brother of Czech Republic first president Vaclav Havel, greeted His Holiness the happiest 85th birthday and thanked him for “his presence”. He also expressed his hope that His Holiness will visit Prague once again.

On behalf of the Friends of Tibet Czech Parliamentary Group for Tibet, Jiri Ruzicka, 1st Vice President, Jan Hornik, Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and Senator Premysl Rabas, sent a written message accompanied by a small present of a symbolic cup in the shape of a double-tailed lion, curated by Czech designer Pavel  Šťastný.

The Czech parliamentary group for Tibet reassured their continued support for Tibet as the parliamentary group consider “it a very important matter”. The written message is available here. 

While abiding His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s message “If you want to celebrate my birthday, I would like to ask you to recite the Mani Mantra at least a thousand times”, members of Tibetan community in Rappereswill-Jona gathered for mantra reciting session on 6th July.

Samantabhadra Institute Italy celebrated His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday with prayers led by Geshe Dorjee Wangchuk, followed by cake cutting ceremony.

Similarly, the Tibetan Community in Berlin, Germany celebrated His Holiness’ 85th birthday by organizing the long-life prayer offerings, followed by birthday cake-cutting.

In keeping with the restrictions over large public gathering restrictions, the Tibetan Community in Austria celebrated His Holiness the Dalai Lama with prayers and traditional Tibetan circle dance in the public park.