Dharamshala, March 28 – This morning 3-member delegation of the South African Tibet Friendship Group (SATFG), which consists of South African members of parliament arrived Dharamshala. The visit follows soon after the launch of the SATFG this February.
Tomorrow the delegation will witness the ongoing budget session of the Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies (ATPD). They will visit the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, the Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute, the Norbulinka Cultural Institute, the Sherab Gatsel School for newly arrived Tibetans from Tibet and the Dolmaling Nunnery.
On 30 March, the delegation will meet Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Tripa of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), Lobsang Nyandak Zayul, Kalon for the Finance and Information and International Relations Department of the CTA, and the Chair and the Vice-chair of the ATPD.
The next day, they will visit the opening ceremony of the 12th Shoton, the Opera Festival of Tibet, at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. In the afternoon, they will receive an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
On 1 April the delegation will visit Bir and Chauntra Tibetan settlements and will depart Dharamshala on the following day.
A week-long visit of the delegation led by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mr. Tony Leon includes Mr. Gareth Morgan, Democratic Alliance MP and the main coordinator of the SATFG, and Mr. Ben Monleeane Skosana, member of the Prince Buthezeli’s Inkatha Freedom Party and the former minister of South Africa.
The DA is the opposition party and it has second largest number of MPs followed by the IFP in the South African parliament.
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.)
