Dalai Lama Visits Vancouver, To Perform First Kalachakra Ritual in Canada

April 19, 2004

Source: KGW.com

http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D821VA7O2.html

On April 19, 2004 KGW.com posted an Associated Press article that reported, "After [a] two-hour spiritual teaching [to a crowd of 13,000 in Vancouver], the Dalai Lama's schedule included a downtown luncheon with British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and a public talk in the afternoon with an introduction by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Also on the agenda is a roundtable discussion with fellow Nobel Peace Prize winners Tutu and Shirin Ebadi of Iran. Most of the monk's time in Canada will be spent in Toronto, where he will lead followers and others in the Kalachakra ritual, a ceremony that lasts several days and is among the most important in the Tibetan Buddhist faith. It will be the first time the ritual, which involves visualization and purification exercises and the construction of an elaborate mandala symbol from sand, has been performed in Canada."