By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, Feb 16: Tibetans held a prayer service here this morning to mourn the sudden accidental death of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s nephew.
Jigme Norbu was hit and killed by a vehicle during his “Walk for Tibet” campaign on a local highway in Florida on Monday evening. Police reportedly say he died on the scene.
Hundreds of Tibetans, including monks and nuns, gathered here at the main Tibetan temple located right in front of the residential complex of the exiled Tibetan leader to light butter lamps and offer prayers for him.
The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the largest pro-independence organization in the Tibetan community in exile, organized the prayer service.
TYC president Tsewang Rigzin described Norbu as a patriotic Tibetan and an ardent activist for Tibet’s independence.
“We are saddened by his death and we want to express our sympathy and solidarity through this prayer service”, Rigzin said.
“It bears significance that he was killed while on his walk for Tibet’s independence,” he added.
Prayer services are also being held elsewhere by Tibetans and Tibet supporters.
The Capital Area Tibetan Association in U.S.A. held a prayer service for Jigme Norbu at the Washington office of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) on Tuesday evening.
The London-based rights group Free Tibet offered sympathies to Norbu’s families and friends.
“The 45-year-old son of the Dalai Lama’s elder brother Takster Rinpoche, has walked many thousands of miles across the world in honour of the struggle for independence of fellow Tibetans in Tibet and to raise awareness of the Chinese occupation of Tibet,” the group said in its statement Tuesday.
In the statement, the group praised his endeavours and said people like him offer “great hope” to Tibetans inside Tibet .
Norbu lived in Bloomington, Indiana, where his father had been a professor at Indiana University and he owned a restaurant that served Tibetan and Indian cuisine.
The Tibetan Monogoalian Buddhist Cultural Centre in Bloomington reportedly issued a statement Tuesday expressing “deep regret” about his tragic death, and praised him for his work for Tibet and its people. To honour Norbu’s life, a prayer service was organised later in the evening at the Bloomington Buddhist center’s Kumbum Chamtse Ling Temple.
Norbu had conducted several walks to campaign for Tibet’s freedom, including a trek of almost 1,500 kilometres in 2009 from the state of Indiana to New York City.
Just last December he undertook a 250-mile walk in Taiwan, an especially significant location given Taiwan’s tortuous relationship with China. In fall, he’d taken a 557-mile walk from Indianapolis to Toronto.
Monday’s accident occurred along the way on what was to have been a 480-Kilometre walk for Tibet, which was scheduled to end in West Palm Beach. On the walk, he reportedly carried a sign which read “FOR WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND TIBETAN INDEPENDENCE.”
