By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
Kathmandu, April 17 – Hollywood actor Richard Gere visited the Tibetan Reception Center here in Kathmandu today. He was welcomed by the director of the Center and many newly arrived Tibetans at the Center, some other important Tibetan officials were also present on the occasion. He was offered ceremonial scarf and he shook hand with almost all the newly arrived Tibetans including a former political prisoner who were waiting in a line to see him. The director then introduced him all the offices, dormitories, other facilities at the center and briefed him about how the Center is operating. He is on a three day visit to Nepal, he said that he came here to see some of his old Tibetan friends and see the changing situation in Nepal and try to raise voice that in this changing situation the Tibetan issue should also be included. The biggest Tibetan issue in Nepal is that the Nepal Government is yet to allow opening of the Office of Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama which the former Nepali Government shutdown in 2005 citing reasons that it is operating without registration for over four decades. According to a local newspaper, the Nepal Government issued a registration for the said office in the name of Tibetan Welfare Society in about September 2006 but after about two months later they cancelled the registration citing reasons that the office has not been registered according to legal requirements, however many Tibetans feel that the cancellation was due to pressure from the Chinese Government.
He talked briefly to the Tibetan media present on the occasion, when asked about the purpose of his visit he said, “it is a difficult moment for the cause (of Tibetans), I think there are very good people all over the World that care about Tibet and Tibetan people, there are good people inside the Tibetan movement in Dharamsala, here in Kathmandu, I think the organization that has been put together is an excellent one; I think this transition now in Nepal is something that we all have to be very concerned with and I think the international community interceding in this atmosphere right now is, there is a new constitution being written, as new relationships internationally are being forged, as a new way of looking into future of Nepal, I think it is a really important time for all of us who care about Tibet to be in the mix, in the dialogue, continually reminding them that Tibetans have to be considered and that’s really why I am here”. He further said that this is not a visit as a tourist but to see his Tibetan friends, his teachers and he felt important to come here as he haven’t come to Nepal in ten years and this is an important part of the whole Tibetan story, people walk for 20-30 days to get out (of Tibet), and the kind of the condition they are in, why do they leave, why they take on these hardships to leave Tibet is an very important part of the story. He came here for two purposes, one was to really meet the people who would be involved in the new Government of Nepal and he is concerned for Nepal, he is also concerned with the Himalayas but his first concern is the Tibetans so it is important for him to come here to this Reception Center and to see how it is functioning. He was very happy to see that it is functioning very well, there is health care for people, the system is in place to get people to education, to get them to a settlement that is appropriate for them, to get a visit with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all these things are very important to him.
Richard Gere is known all over the world for his Hollywood movies including the blockbuster ‘Pretty Woman’, he is one of the most important supporters of Tibetans and the Dalai Lama in the World.
