Dalai Lama Blesses Auroville Tibetan Pavilion

Auroville, Puducherry, India, 20 January 2009 (Phayul.com) - Exiled Tibetan Leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Auroville on the outskirts of Union territory of Pondicherry today.

The Tibetan leader inaugurated the newly completed International Pavilion of Tibetan Culture in the premises of Auroville, a community township of various nationalities. Auroville has several such pavilions for different countries.

Around 250 Aurovillians including Tibetans and visitors gathered at the Tibetan Pavilion to welcome the 1989 Nobel peace laureate. Claude Arpi of the Tibetan Pavilion welcomed His Holiness as he walked past the greeting admirers.

In a brief address at a modest function, His Holiness said he was very pleased with the progress made over the years by the Tibetan pavilion and Auroville.

"I'm very happy, my each visit here I found more progress, more development and the most important when I come here the people from the different countries, different nationalities then I felt now here genuine human spirit, the spirit of human brother sisterhood, I think something very sort of alive, that's very good".

He added, "Now we really need effort to promote genuine human spirit, respect all human being regardless of what their race, what their cultural, what their background, what their faith, that's important".

His Holiness later in the day gave a talk on 'Universal Responsibility and Human Unity' at Tibetan Pavilion after visiting Matrimandir. Around 2000 people attended the talk.

This is the Tibetan leader’s third visit to Auroville. His last visit was in 1993.

His Holiness will address students and staff of Madras university tomorrow.