By KAREN RIVEDAL
The Dalai Lama’s three-day visit to the Madison area last week raised $503,000 for the local Buddhist organization that sponsored it, and organizers promised the windfall would benefit charities around the world.
“We have a very large list of (places) where we want to donate that money,” said Penny Paster, who coordinated the visit for the Deer Park Buddhist Center in the town of Dunn. “We will go forward with our list, which is global, national and regional.”
About $200,000 of the money, raised from ticket sales and donations, will go to India to support curriculum at the Dalai Lama’s schools and monasteries, Paster said. Most of the rest is slated for health-related charities and other social causes, in keeping with the Dalai Lama’s message of happiness and harmony through compassion for others.
Paster described the donations as a chance to put into practice the teachings of the Dalai Lama, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet whose ties to Madison have prompted five visits in the past 30 years.
The half-million dollars raised before and during the Dalai Lama’s visit was what was left over after all the bills were paid, Paster said.
Those expenses included facility rental fees for a series of sold-out public talks — including 12,000 people at the Kohl Center on Friday at a cost of $40,000 to organizers — and the cost of security for the Dalai Lama.
Security coverage was coordinated by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Assisting with security were the Madison Police Department, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and UW-Madison police. More than 30 UW-Madison officers worked the Kohl Center event, with overtime costs yet to be tallied, Lt. Bill Larson said Tuesday.
Little or no overtime was reported by Madison police and the Sheriff’s Office, according to those agencies. Off-duty deputies were hired for security at the Buddhist Center, where the Dalai Lama stayed.
No security problems were reported at any events involving the Dalai Lama.
Spokesman Brian Leventhal on Tuesday said the government does not release the number of agents used in events or security costs, which in any case are borne by taxpayers.
