Scottish Catholic Observer

The 14th Dalai Lama will visit Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness from Thursday June 21 until Sunday June 24, giving a series of talks focusing on education.

Confirmation of his visit comes after an the invitation from 2006 issued jointly by The Conference of Edinburgh’s Religious Leaders, The Edinburgh Inter Faith Association, The University of Dundee, Dundee City Council, The City of Edinburgh, the Highland Council and The National Library of Scotland.

Rabbi David Rose, co-convener of The Edinburgh Inter Faith Association and co-chairman of The Conference of Edinburgh’s Religious Leaders, is delighted the visit will go ahead.

“We are again delighted to welcome the Dalai Lama to Edinburgh and Scotland,” he said. “As a beacon of tolerance, commonsense and morality in our world, this pre-eminent religious leader does us a great honour in again gracing our city. The diverse faiths of the city eagerly await his presence and his inspirational words.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, represented the Catholic Church at the 2010 Conference of Edinburgh’s Religious Leaders.

The Dalai Lama with have a full lecture schedule while in Scotland.

“Three public talks in three cities being Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness are the highlights of a very full schedule for His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Scotland,” Victor Spence, co-ordinator of the Dalai Lama’s visit ito the country, said.

Education will be at the heart of the visit and school students from across Scotland have been asked to developing a series of questions for the Dalai Lama for the public talks.

The Scottish visit is part of a wider visit to the United Kingdom that also includes Manchester and London on the itinerary.

The Dalai Lama will arrive in Scotland from London on June 21 and begins his Scottish tour the next day in Edinburgh with a private viewing of archive material relating to Tibet during a visit to the National Library of Scotland. This will be followed by a public talk at the Usher Hall on the theme of Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World. He will meet with religious leaders from across Scotland for an informal lunch at the Scottish Parliament.

“I am delighted to welcome His Holiness The Dalai Lama to Edinburgh and I will be very much looking forward to hearing what will undoubtedly be a fascinating and inspiring talk,” Edinburgh Lord Provost George Grubb. “This will be a monumental occasion for the city and a truly special way to mark the twentieth anniversary of The Edinburgh Lectures series.”

Later that day, at the invitation of Dundee University, the he will give The Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion at the city’s Caird Hall. On Saturday June 23 he will make another historic visit to the Highland Capital of Inverness where he will give a public talk at Eden Court Theatre

Thubten Samdup, representative of the Dalai Lama and UK visit co-ordinator, said: “This visit will be an opportunity for people across the UK to hear the message of this globally recognised spiritual and moral authority.”

Security for the Dalai Lama, birth name Tenzin Gyatso, was increased earlier this month after two men tried to get close to him with fake security passes and in light of accusations from China, which has ongoing disputes with Tibet, that he had used suicides among Buddhist monks and nuns for political gain.