Dalai Lama arrives in Switzerland, last visit six years ago

While his health and age are worrying, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism arrives in Zurich on Friday, August 23. A highly anticipated visit to the country which has the largest Tibetan community in Europe.

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is expected in Zurich on Friday, August 23, in one of the largest halls in the country with some 15,000 seats. His last official visit to Switzerland was in 2018. If everyone is waiting with interest for his arrival, it is also because the Dalai Lama is starting to get old and has health problems.

On July 6, the Dalai Lama spoke in a video on his X account. He thanked his millions of followers from New York for all the messages he had received for his 89th birthday. He also explained that he was in good health and recovering from knee surgery.I am now almost 90 years oldhe assured, and I don’t feel unhealthy, except for a slight discomfort in my legs“, and to continue, “but it’s inevitable, it’s age. So I’m fine, you can rest easy“. The Nobel Peace Prize winner who reassures and who has resumed his activities since he was on Thursday evening, August 22 in the UBS Arena hall in New York in the United States in front of thousands of people for a prayer ceremony offered to the Tibetan, Mongolian and Himalayan communities of North America.

In the United States on Thursday, and in Switzerland on Friday evening and all weekend, with a prayer ceremony again in Zurich.It may come as a surprise, but the Tibetan community in Switzerland is the largest in Europe and one of the strongest in the world after those in India, the United States and Canada. It is estimated that there are more than 8,000 Tibetans living there. Pour presence is historic and dates back to 1960, when Switzerland agreed to welcome, at the request of the Dalai Lama, many orphans who had to flee Tibet because of the Chinese invasion. Many Tibetans have settled in the Swiss Alps, the climate is close to that of Tibet with mountains, snow and cold. PTo understand the importance of the Dalai Lama to Tibetans, one must realize that for some, the religious leader is more precious than their own parents. He is a guide and a living god.

A living god who spent his life peacefully fighting China to obtain, if not independence, at least autonomy for Tibet. So when we see the Chinese repression against Tibetans, the terms no longer really have any importance, as the communist regime represses and destroys all Tibetan culture: ban on teaching the Tibetan language in schools, destruction of monasteries, nothing escapes the Chinese invader. But the problem that will arise is whether there will be a 15th Dalai Lama once the 14th dies. We know that the Chinese will do everything to appoint someone who is in their pocket, hence the idea of ​​the Tibetan Nobel Peace Prize winner to seriously consider being the last of the dynasty.