(TibetanReview.net, Feb12’21) – “A glorious time and a happy homeland is not a gift from nature. We should remain grateful for our country, and for the thousands upon thousands of people willing to sacrifice for us,” China’s Panchen Gyaltsen Norbu thus wrote in his Tibetan New Year greeting to the Tibetan people Feb 12.
Expressing best wishes to all Tibetans at home and abroad for both the Chinese Spring Festival and the Tibetan Year of the Iron-Ox through China Tibet Online, he has echoed President Xi Jinping’s rhetorical message about community of shared future of mankind.
“health, peace and happiness are the most precious fortune in human life. From the (Covid-19) pandemic, we have also further understood that all human beings are in a community with a shared future,” he has said in his message carried by China’s online Tibet news service eng.tibet.cn Feb 12.
The Chinese Spring Festival and the Tibetan Losar fell on Feb 12 this time. However, in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, Tibetans have been left unable to visit temples to offer worship, a traditionally important New Year activity. China closed the temples on the pretext of a Covid-19 safety measure.
In his New Year message, Gyaltsen Norbu has also said, “We should be much aware of Karma and restrain the greed, hatred and delusion in our minds and the thought of differences. We should remain benevolent and as much as possible do things that can benefit the nation, the society and the people. We should cherish the happy life and spend every day in this life well. We should also take good care of all living things and the environment of the plateau. Only in this way can we follow a virtuous path which therefore brings happiness.”
