21:00, 5 August 2011

Kalmyk Buddhist leader asks for MFA's permission for visit of the 14th Dalai Lama to Russia

Telo Tulku Rinpoche, Sajin Lama (Supreme Lama), President of the Centralized religious organization "Association of Buddhists of Kalmykia" sent an open letter to Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, requesting to permit a pastoral visit to Russia of the Buddhists' spiritual leader.

"Until recent time, the main reason impeding the adoption of a positive decision on the pastoral visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Russia, , was the fact that His Holiness combined both functions of the spiritual leader of the world importance and political leader of the Tibetan Government in exile," Telo Tulku Rinpoche reminded in his letter.

According to the Supreme Lama of Kalmykia, "this obstacle no longer exists". In March 2011 the Dalai Lama officially resigned as political leader and now he acts solely in the status of the spiritual leader of one of the world's major religions.

"As you know, during the last two years we had no opportunity to invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Russian regions, we had to organize his teachings for Russian Buddhists outside Russia," the Sajin Lama of Kalmykia writes.

Author: Boris Dzhengurov

Source: CK correspondent