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Dalai Lama offers prayers for Tibetans and Iraqis

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

The Dalai Lama on 26 October 2009, in Dharamshala, India, prays for the four Tibetans executed in Lhasa for their alleged role in arson causing deaths in March 2008, and for the 147 victims of the twin suicide bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

The Dalai Lama offered prayers for the four Tibetans who were executed recently by Chinese authorities for their alleged role in arson causing deaths during the protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in March 2008.

“I feel sad, and helpless that four young Tibetans were executed in Lhasa by the Chinese authorities recently,” the Dalai Lama said.

Four Tibetans — Lobsang Gyaltsen, 27, Loyak, 25, Penkyi, aged 21, and one unidentified — were executed on 20 October. The Chinese media has not reported on the executions so far.

The Dalai Lama also offered prayers for the victims of the twin suicide bombings in the heart of Baghdad which killed 155 people on Sunday. The attacks outside the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Administration building also injured 500 people.

These actions are coming from hatred, the Dalai Lama says, which does not bring any answer.

The prayers were offered during a ceremony to launch the Dalai Lama’s biography published by the Norbulingka Institute. The six-volume biography, written in Tibetan, covers the life of the Dalai Lama since his birth in 1935 up to his first year in exile in 1960.

Also, Thubten Nyima Lungtok Tenzin Norbu was presented by the Dalai Lama, in his first public appearance as the 102nd Gaden Tripa (the highest position of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism).

Others prominent figures present during the ceremony include the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the Karmapa, the head of Bon religion, and officials of the exile government.

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

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