The Dalai Lama is 84 years old and on Saturday, 6 July 2019, he was celebrated at the Tibetzentrum with almost 100 guests. In the context of the birthday celebration, a ceremonial diploma ceremony was also held for this year’s successful graduates of the diploma courses “Buddhist Science of Mind”, “Traditional Tibetan Medicine” and “Tibetan Massage and Mild Applications”.

They received their diploma and a Tibetan Katak from director Geshe Tenzin Dhargye.

“I am very happy and proud that you have successfully completed your courses,” said Geshe Tenzin. “But the diploma is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that you use the knowledge that you have acquired for the benefit of all people”.

Further program items were a Tibetan incense ceremony and prayers for the long life of His Holiness, at the end of which Tibetan tsampa was thrown into the air.

To the enthusiasm of the audience there was also music and dance performances with young Tibetan artists.

A peace tree was planted at the end of the festivities.

Now a Japanese ginko tree adorns the front garden of the Tibetan center, a descendant of those trees that miraculously survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The organization “Green Legacy Hiroshima” sends seeds of these plants all over the world. The seedling was presented by the Klagenfurt botanist Michael Kosch.