Seven Tibetan Buddhist monks from Tashi Lhunpo monastery visited the Flathead Valley between March 9th and March 12th, 2003. They created a sand mandala, performed a sacred dance, called a cham, performed a candle light vigil, and gave some Buddhist teachings.

candle light vigil

see the pictures

when

March 10th, 2003

where

Whitefish Yoga Center
110 Lupfer Ave, Whitefish, MT [map] -- limit 50 people

why

On March 9th, 1959 Chinese government officials asked the Dalai Lama to join them the following day at their headquarters in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. They also requested that he not be accompanied by any armed bodyguards or members of the Tibetan military and was told the entire event must be kept secret.

The following day, March 10th, word of this got out to the people of Lhasa and 300,000 Tibetans surrounded His Holiness' summer palace, the Norbulinka, forming a human sheild of protection. Fighting broke out between the Chinese and Tibetans and over the course of the next 10 days the three major monasteries of Lhasa were destroyed, over 86,000 Tibetans were killed, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama fled to India where he remains in exile.

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