Over 1,500 people walked the streets of Dharamsala in the dark and windy evening holding vigil for Tibet’s long imprisoned spiritual leader, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet. The candle light vigil was organised by the Tibetan Women’s Association to mark the 10th anniversary of the Panchen Lama’s disappearance.
The vigil was staged at three different areas in and around Dharamsala: Mcleod Ganj town, Lower Dharamsala and the Norbulingka area in Sidhpur. Monks and nuns from Gyutoe, Gadong, Nechung, Dolmaling, Namgyal, Institute of Buddhist Dialectics and Gaden Choeling were at the forefront of the vigil. Participants also included students from TCV schools and Norbulingka institute, members of TWA and the general public of Dharamsala.
Sending a strong spiritual message of condemnation over the continued detention of one of Tibet’s most important religious leaders, the chief abbots of Namgyal and Gyutoe monasteries lighted the first candles and led the march from Mcleod town to Tsuglakhang and Gyutoe monastery to Norbulingka institute respectively. Venerable Kuten Rinpoche from Nechung led the vigil at Lower Dharamsala.
Led by TWA executives from three different locations, separate functions were held simultaneously at the end of the vigils where speeches were read to inform people about the missing Panchen Lama’s condition. The TWA’s yellow and green Free Panchen Lama bands, symbolising the birth elements of the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama, were distributed extensively. Banners carrying messages of Tibetan mothers to the Chinese president Hu Jintao and the United Nations expressed outrage and immediate answer on the whereabouts and condition of the Panchen Lama.
A makeshift stall manned by TWA members collected signatures of support for the Panchen Lama to be sent to the Committee on the Rights of the Child at the UN. It is hoped that the signature campaign will help raise the case of Panchen Lama at the upcoming UN session of the CRC in Geneva. Door to door signatures were collected at all the shops and shacks that crammed the streets of Dharamsala.
Similar vigils were staged by the 45 regional chapters of TWA in 26 different towns and cities all over the world as part of the Global Vigil for Panchen Lama organized under the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN).
Tibetan Women’s Association
Central Executive Committee
Bhagsu Nag Road
McLeod Ganj
Dharamsala, 176219
India
