By ALAN MCEWEN and JOHN GIBSON
SIR Tom Farmer is set to embark on a pilgrimage to India after being invited to meet the Dalai Lama at his home.
The millionaire tycoon will journey to the residence of the exiled leader of the Tibetan Buddhists near Dharamsala.
Sir Tom will be joined on the trip by city hairdresser Charlie Miller and Victor Spence, general secretary of the Edinburgh Inter-Faith Association.
The close friends met the Dalai Lama during his visit to Scotland in June last year, and were invited to travel to India as his guests.
And the Kwik-Fit founder’s visit will come only weeks after an audience with the Pope in Rome, which is scheduled for tomorrow.
Sir Tom said he was looking forward to an “enlightening” experience when the trio jet off to India on February 17.
He said: “It came about when myself and Charlie met the Dalai Lama during his visit to Edinburgh.
“We were talking and he made a light-hearted comment that we had to come and visit him at his home.
“I’ve never been to India, but it’s a place I’ve always wanted to see. Myself and Charlie decided this was the perfect reason to go.
“Then Victor, who helped arrange the Dalai Lama’s visit, became involved and it all fell into place. We’ll also visit Varanasi, a holy city on the Ganges, the Taj Mahal and the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta where Mother Teresa carried out her work.”
Sir Tom, who was brought up a Catholic, met Mother Teresa in Switzerland and again when she paid a visit to Edinburgh.
“You cannot meet people like that without learning something,” he said.
“When we visit the nuns we’ll see them caring for individuals who live in great difficulty.
“But we’ll also see how much good there is in the world. I’m sure it will have a profound effect.”
The Hibs owner is travelling to Rome today and is scheduled to be granted a papal audience, an honour he has received on a number of previous occasions.
But he is looking forward to another meeting with the Dalai Lama as part of a busy schedule arranged for the group’s stay in India.
After flying from the Capital to Delhi, they will fly to Amritsar before taking a train to Pathentok.
They will meet the Dalai Lama on the morning of February 21 before returning to Delhi the next day.
Following a short stay in Varanasi, they will journey on to Calcutta and return to Scotland on February 27.
Award-winning crimper Charlie Miller, who employs 80 people at three salons in the Capital, is also excited about their voyage.
“It’s a sort of spiritual thing,” he said.
“Sir Tom and I met the Dalai Lama when he came to Scotland last year. We discussed then the possibility of three of us going out to India to see him at Macleod Ganj, his house near Dharamsala. He was most co-operative about the idea.
“I must say the Dalai Lama made a huge impression on me. Anybody who meets him walks away feeling enriched spiritually.”
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists and also head of state for the Tibetan government in exile since 1950, after China took control of Tibet.
