CHAIRMAN'S NOTE
August - September 2007
Report on His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit to New Zealand from 16th - 19th June 2007.
It was wonderful to be able to go right up to the door of the plane, which carried His Holiness from Sydney to Auckland New Zealand and present His Holiness with a white khata and welcome him to New Zealand. My heart leapt with joy to see His Holiness' radiant face. There was huge crowd to welcome him to New Zealand as he moved towards the waiting car. There were a few more people waiting at the hotel.
The next morning on Sunday, 17th June, was taken up with media interviews, meetings with the Tibetan community, committee members of the Auckland branch of Friends of Tibet and Tibetan Children Relief Society.
His Holiness was given a Mayoral reception at the town hall, where all the city councillors and Mayors of other Auckland City Councils attended. The Mayor of Auckland Dick Hubbard gave a welcome speech and His Holiness replied. Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary attended this function. His Holiness greeted Sir Edmund as an old friend and gave him a khata. The Auckland City presented His Holiness with a small curved wooden Maori war canoe.
Then 2.00pm His Holiness addressed a full venue of more than 10,000 people at the Vector Arena. The subject was "Compassion and Kindness" His Holiness was so relaxed and delivered the topic with great ease. The public talk ended with me introducing a New Zealand author Mr. Andrew Crowe who has written a book on His Holiness life for the teenage readers. The title of the book is "The Dalai Lama Story - Making of a World Leader". This book has a foreword by His Holiness, and it was launched that day. Andrew presented a copy to His Holiness in front of the audience.
The following day, Monday, after another TV interview, His Holiness gave a Buddhist Teaching at Vector Arena starting at 10 am for 4,000 people. The topic of the teaching was "The Four Noble Truths"-two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. After the teaching a short Mandala offering was done. The Dalai Lama Visit Trust New Zealand made small offerings to all the Buddhist teachers who sat on the stage, and a $20,000.00 offering to His Holiness. His Holiness asked the Trust to put the offering towards the Tibetan College, which is being built in Bangalore in India. We drove straight to the airport for Wellington after the teaching. We arrived in Wellington at 6.30 pm. After short Maori welcome at the hotel, everyone retired for the day.
Tuesday 19th started
with the Indian High Commissioner and his wife welcoming His Holiness to the
capital. This was followed by short meeting with Friends of Tibet (NZ) Wellington
Branch and the small Tibetan community that lives in Wellington. The first political
meeting was with the New Zealand Foreign Minister Mr Winston Peters, who received
His Holiness but barred all media to the meeting and only three of us were allowed
to his office: His Holiness, his private secretary Chhime Rigzing and myself.
I felt very uncomfortable with this meeting and told the Foreign Minister why
His Holiness is here in his office etc. The meeting ended after about 20 minutes,
after which he asked for a photo, but there was no camera. Although I had prearranged
for the Trust photographer to be there, the security would not let her go, because
the FM office had barred all media and photographer from the meeting. This is
the first time there is no photograph of the New Zealand Foreign Minister meeting
His Holiness. We then went to meet the opposition Foreign Spokesperson Mr McCully.
Outside his office all media were present and photographers everywhere and Dr.
Nick Smith MP, the chairman of Parliamentary Lobby Group for Tibet was at the
meeting. While the meeting was on the opposition leader Hon John Key MP dropped
in for a while and lots of photos were taken, which appeared in the newspaper
next day. During their discussion all media were present. Then we were off to
Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimonds MP. Here again all media were present.
This time all Green Party MPs were at the meeting with all their staff. They
even had the Tibetan flag up in there office. Because Green Party believes in
ecology issue, His Holiness said, " I must be your Party member because
I believe in what you stand for" and his Holiness spoke about the fragile
eco system in Tibet etc. The Green Party presented a framed copy of photograph
of their late co-leader Rod Donald who stood on the Parliament steps with Tibetan
flag, when the Chinese PM visited New Zealand some time back.
The result of that protest the official welcome for the Chinese PM on Parliament
step was cancelled
This is the first time that New Zealand Prime Minister did not meet His Holiness in New Zealand. This was not from the lack of trying on my side after months of calls to her office, only to find out at the last minute that Helen Clark would not meet His Holiness. I was furious because her office had led me on for so long. The New Zealand public were very angry and she will pay dearly next year when the general election comes around. Her excuse was that she and His Holiness "happened" to be travelling in the same plane from Brisbane to Sydney, and at Brisbane airport she sent someone across to ask His Holiness to meet her. They met at the airport and spoke for 10 minutes, where I believe she talked about the religious forum she initiated this year in New Zealand etc. Meeting His Holiness was quoted in the press as a "serendipitous meeting". The radio talkback and newspaper articles were full of criticism on her for not meeting His Holiness. I had a lot of interviews and I let them know how I felt. I simply said Australia is not our country and she should welcome His Holiness in New Zealand like all past Prime Ministers have done. She has given way our sovereignty to the Chinese Government due to pressure from China for her not to meet His Holiness. New Zealand is heading towards being the first western country to sign a Free Trade Agreement with China and this was the stick they used to warn PM to not to meet His Holiness, otherwise the trade deal will suffer. If China is really serious about all these threats, then she will have no trading partners at all, as His Holiness has met most of the world leaders with whom China has trade ties. However I am very sad that our PM has given into China this time. It should be noted that it was Helen Clark who rang me personally in 1996 asking for a meeting with Holiness when she was Leader of the Opposition, which I was able to organise in Auckland.
Thank you to all of you who wrote to her about not meeting His Holiness. From what some of you have shown me, you all seemed to get a standard reply.
The National Press Club gave a lunch at Parliament for His Holiness, which was hosted by Hon Peter Dunne the Minister of Revenue, who welcomed His Holiness on Parliament steps along with Hone Harawira of the Maori Party, who gave him a Maori welcome.
After this, His Holiness gave a public talk to a full TSB Bank Arena where 4,500 people heard His Holiness speak on the topic of " Human Approach to World Peace". His Holiness was introduced by the Mayor of Wellington Ms Kerry Prendergast. His Holiness started his public talk by making every one at ease, and spoke for almost one and half-hours. This was His Holiness's final engagement in New Zealand, so one of our Trustees Mr Neil Cameron gave thanks publicly to His Holiness and invited him to come back.
Then His Holiness bid farewell to all at the Arena and we drove straight to the airport. I was the only one allowed with the DPS to accompany His Holiness to see him and his entourage off onto the Sydney-bound plane. I said good-bye to His Holiness with tears in my eyes and wondered when will the time come when he can lead us back to our beloved country of Tibet. Long Live His Holiness, may the light in the Potala palace shine brightly with his presence.
Thank you to those who contributed their thoughts in one sentence on the visit. They appear in the following pages as a memento of His Holiness' visit to New Zealand.
Best wishes and
Tashi Delek
Thuten Kesang