By Tsewang Norbu, Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V.
On June 17, 2005 His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with representatives of 97 cities, towns and districts from all over Germany at the ESTREL Hotel in Berlin for more than an hour. These 97 Lord Mayors, Mayors and heads of Districts were accompanied by staffs of their respective town halls and also by family members. This is definitely a historic meeting of such a big gathering of communal politicians at one time. Many of the communal politicians along with their entourage came from different parts of Germany, some coming from distances of more than 900 kms.
In stark contrast to the dark ambiance of the theater hall, the meeting was certainly one of the most memorable and lively meetings of the Dalai Lama with German politicians and public figures too date. Despite extremely tight schedules the Tibetan leader, having one engagement after the other from 8 o’clock in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, looked very vital and fresh. His 30 minutes address, mostly in Tibetan but interspersed with English, was witty, lively and full of humours. He explained how Tibetans looked at their national flag prior to the conflict with China, today’s relevance of this symbol in the light of Chinese ban on it and also dispelled any eventual doubts whether his thanking for hoisting the Tibetan national flag on 10th March could be in contradiction to his avowed position not to reseek Tibetan independence.
The meeting was organized by the Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V. (TID) which is usually called the TSG Germany in English. When the TID got an offer from the Office of Tibet, Geneva, to get a short schedule with His Holiness during his visit to Berlin in June, the Executive Board decided to use this opportunity—instead of the members of the Executive Board going for an closed audience—to give the representatives of the cities and districts which have been hoisting the Tibetan National flag on March 10 every year.
The TID started this flag campaign in 1996 (www.tibetflagge.net) with 21 cities participating. This number grew to 76 in 1997, 300 in 1999 and to 649 in 2005.
The two-day visit of His Holiness to Berlin came at the invitation of the International Campaign for Tibet as the annual Light of Truth Award was given to the former Czech President Vaclav Havel, Dr. Count Lambsdoff (Chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation) and Irmtraut Wäger, Chairlady of the German Aids to Tibetans.
