(TibetanReview.net, Jul10, 2018) – The Dalai Lama’s 83rd birthday was marked by what was described as an unprecedented number of over one thousand followers and well-wishers in the Moscow House of Cinema Hall on Jul 6. It was also stated to have been organized as a part of the Tibetan people’s “Thank you, Russia” programme being held in various cities of the Russian Federation to express gratitude to those organizations and individuals who had been supporting the Tibetan cause and the Dalai Lama.
The event was reported to have been addressed by Telo Tulku Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s honorary representative for Russia, Mongolia and CIS countries at the Office of Tibet, Moscow, a co-organizer of the event; the other being the Save Tibet Foundation. He has expressed gratitude to a number of individuals who had made significant contributions to the Tibetan political cause and religious knowledge. They were stated to include Dolma Shagdarova; Dr Andrei Terentiev; Zorig Tsedenbal; Professors Tatiana Shaumyan and Sergey Kuzmin at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences; Sergey Kuzmin; Andrian Melnikov and Galina Kubareva; and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
He has particularly thanked former Kalmyk President Ilyumzhinov for his immense contribution in reestablishing Tibetan Buddhism in Kalmykia. “Up to this day, he is the only political leader in Russia who was speaking on every occasion of the importance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the Russian Buddhist republics and beyond. He is the only political leader in Russia who was standing on the roof of the famous Jokhang temple in Lhasa and openly speaking of His Holiness”.
The Office of Tibet, Moscow, said the Dalai Lama’s 83rd birthday was celebrated across Russia, especially in the Buddhist republics of Kalmykia, Buryatia and Tuva.
