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Dalai Lama visits Mongolia
22/08/2006 10:15 - (SA)
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| The Dalai Lama gestures during a visit to Mongolia's largest monastery, Gandantegcheling in Ulan Bator. (Vincent Yu, AP) |
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Ulan Bator - The Dalai Lama visited Mongolia's largest Buddhist monastery on Tuesday, at the start of a trip aimed at shoring up Tibetan links with the landlocked nation that is expected to draw anger from China.
China, which labels the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader a separatist troublemaker, protested his last trip to the country but has yet to make an official pronouncement on his current visit, his seventh since 1979.
In an apparent effort to reassure Beijing, Mongolia's foreign ministry issued a statement saying the Dalai Lama's visit was "purely a religious matter and non-political.
"The Dalai Lama will not be participating in any political activities," the statement said.
Good fortune
Accompanied by a police escort and numerous security men, the Dalai Lama arrived midmorning by car at Gandantegcheling temple in the capital Ulan Bator to the cheers of a crowd of about 500, including many Western tourists.
Smiling, he waved at the crowd, many of whom held up silk scarves as a sign of greeting. A group of elderly women chanted Buddhist scripture while other visitors spun prayer wheels and fed flocks of pigeons.
The Dalai Lama then entered an inner compound where he walked up a yellow silk carpet beneath a yellow parasol amid swirling incense smoke as monks blew trumpets and crashed cymbals. Entering a prayer hall, he mounted a raised dais while bowing monks chanted, receiving food offerings and bestowing blessings.
"Every time he visits, he brings good fortune to Mongolia," said Baamba, a retiree who like many Mongolians uses just one name.
Widely revered
The Dalai Lama is widely revered in Mongolia, whose people have strong historical links to Tibet and have traditionally followed Tibet's esoteric school of Buddhism.
His visits have been credited with helping revive Buddhist institutions that were all but wiped out over six decades of communism.
His schedule includes a lecture to a public audience in Ulan Bator's main stadium and spending two days in meetings with Mongolian Buddhist clergy in an effort to resolve factional disputes.
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