By Phurbu Thinley,
Phayul Correspondent
Dharamsala, October 14 – Thirteen indigenous grandmothers from all over the world representing—the Arctic Circle; North, South, and Central America; Africa; and Asia have arrived here yesterday evening to participate in their Fourth Council Gathering, which started here from today and will go on till October 23.
Besides the regular conference meetings, the grandmothers will simultaneously engage in intensive prayer session unique to each of the grandmothers’ culture and faith for world peace and unity to heal the world in these trouble times.
The Fourth Council gathering of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers is being hosted and organized by the Tibetan Women’s Organisation (TWA), headquartered here in Dharamsala, the exiled hometown of Dalai Lama and the base for the exiled Tibetan Government headed by Him.
The current visit to Dharamsala is part of the Grandmother Council’s plan to meet every six months, traveling the world to each other’s home places to cultivate their unified prayer for peace and to integrate the last council gathering held in Mexico.
Earlier during a meeting, the TWA President, Dr. B. Tsering said that every care has been taken by her organisation to give the ongoing event a delicate Tibetan touch to make sure the whole event progresses in a traditional Tibetan manner. In this way, Dr. B. Tsering added, the visit to the exiled Tibetan base will enable the grandmothers to embrace the unique Tibetan traditional and cultural values with deeper understanding.
In this more than a week-long event, the grandmothers along with several other participants from around the world will have a chance to experience Tibetan way of life and will be visiting some of the major Tibetan educational and cultural centres followed by private audiences with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Gyalwa Karmapa.
Deeply concerned with the occurrences of unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life, thirteen indigenous grandmothers around the world came together at a retreat in upstate New York in October 2004, and formed an alliance called, THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS.
The 13 member Council of Grandmas was founded on the belief that the traditional wisdoms of ancestors have potential to create a more sustainable mother earth for future generation. The alliance strives with their self-borne grandmotherly responsibility that they must speak out to the world in one united voice that would carry their age-old and sacred indigenous people’s wisdom forward into this pivotal new millennium.
One among the 13 indigenous grandmothers is Tsering Dolma Gyalthong, a Tibetan by birth who had to escape along with her family from Tibet in 1958 to India as a result of Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet. Among other things, this grandmother is concerned about the serious threat the fragile eco-system of Tibetan plateau is facing as a result of dumping of radioactive wastes from products all over the world and possible threat of survival the Tibetan people are facing back in their home country under the oppression of Communist Chinese regime.
At the opening function this morning, Chief Guest, the Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile, Ven, Tsering Phuntsok said, the vision upheld by the council of 13 indigenous grandmas is parallel to the Buddhist principle of according a mother with the highest esteem and extended every success for their endeavour.
Tsering Dolma Gyalthong
For more information visit: www.grandmotherscouncil.com
www.sacredstudies.org
www.forthenext7generations.com
To know about Tibetan Women’s Organisation, visit: www.tibetanwomen.org
