Dalai Lama greets thousands of his followers on his 80th birthday celebration at Tsuglakhang temple in McLeod Ganj, India, on 21 June 2015. File photo/Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
MCLEOD GANJ, India, 31 August 2015
The 34th Kalachakra empowerment scheduled to be held in January 2016 has been postponed by a year owing to the Dalai Lama’s busy schedule.
Sikyong (Prime Minister of Central Tibetan Administration) Lobsang Sangay announced the postponement during a press conference, according to Tibet.net.
Sangay had announced the event, the 34th Kalachakara (Wheel of Time), a year ago, and it was planned to be held from 14 to 25 January 2016 in Bodh Gaya, the place where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.
Due to the Dalai Lama’s many programmes this year, including attending his 80th birthday celebrations around the world and the long life prayer offering ceremonies, and an extensive schedule lined up in the coming months, the event has been postponed, Sangay said.
Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet have requested the Dalai Lama to make his events calendar less exhaustive. It was considering this suggestion that the Tibetan administration has requested the Dalai Lama to postpone the event by a year, to which he consented.
The exact dates of the 2017 Kalachakra will be announced later.
We all know that His Holiness has always been busy. I am certain that the call for the postponement was due to people’s resentment against Lobsang Sangay making use of the platform just before the final election on 20 March 2016. Even His Holiness may have suggested to postpone it due to the timing of the Kalachakra. Good that Sangay la relented to those sentiments and postponed it. He shouldn’t have planned a Kalachakra at such a time at the first place. He should know that it’s not only him who knows how to play politics.