By CRAIG BROWN
A TALENTED teenage singer has been given the responsibility of welcoming the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, when he arrives in Scotland at the end of this month.
Samantha Seth, 14, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, will take a break from her schoolwork to greet the Buddhist leader with a traditional Gaelic song during his six-day spiritual visit.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner will host a series of lectures at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow, where he will share his beliefs with thousands of followers.
The organisers, the Dharma Network, want to see the Dalai Lama’s teachings reach the widest possible audience and for the first time in the UK, they will be simultaneously translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish.
The organisers had asked Samantha to perform as a means of to introducing the 68-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader to the Scottish public.
They said they had approached her because her singing voice had been highly recommended and thought she would be ideal for the role. Samantha will also be formally blessed on stage by the Dalai Lama.
“It is going to be so cool getting to meet the Dalai Lama, I can’t believe how lucky I am,” said the teenager.
“I will be singing the offering and then he will be blessing me on stage. It’s going to be really nerve-racking but amazing at the same time.”
She added: “I have been reading up on some of the stuff about the Dalai Lama and looking at his website.”
Samantha is expected to perform in front of 30,000 people at the SECC on 29 May, when the first of the Dalai Lama’s lectures will take place.
Her mother, Isabel Seth, said that the security surrounding the Dalai Lama’s visit was so tight that not even her father would not even be allowed to see her perform.
Mrs Seth said: “This is a tremendous honour for Samantha, a big, big honour.
“Samantha’s dad, Harry, won’t even get to see it because she is only allowed one chaperone and there are no tickets left.”
Samantha, who attends Rosehall High School, in Coatbridge, has been singing since she was a small child and is on the verge of signing a recording contract.
She has recently been working with Gordy Goudie, who has worked as a producer with Simple Minds and is currently producing several of her songs.
The Dalai Lama will spend four days on a programme of Buddhist teachings in Glasgow. He then travels to Edinburgh and Dunfermline.
His engagements will include leading MSPs in their weekly period of contemplation at the Scottish Parliament and answering children’s questions at the Usher Hall.
He will also be guest of honour at a peace ceremony in Pittenweem Park, Dunfermline.
The Dalai Lama has been exiled from his home country since the Tibetan national uprising in 1959.
