Sikkim Presents Long Life Prayer to His Holiness the Dalai Lama [Friday, 24 December 2010, 4:14 p.m.]

DHARAMSHALA:
The people and government of Sikkim jointly organised a long life
prayer ceremony in honour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s eight-day
visit to the northeastern Indian state.Over 25,000 devotees,
including top government functionaries led by chief minister of the
state, attended the long life prayer ceremony in the capital Gangtok on
Wednesday.Chief Minister Dr Pawan Kumar Chamling and secretary
of department of religion and culture, Tsechogling Rinpoche presented
Mendel Tensum and other auspicious offerings to His Holiness the Dalai
Lama during the ceremony.Later in the afternoon, His Holiness
the Dalai Lama graced the concluding session of the three-day
international conference on science, spirituality and education.Introduce curriculum on human ethics in schoolsHis
Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke about the importance of bringing changes
in teaching methods in the education system, which he said has
drawbacks. “I usually share my ideas with experts and scholars
that we need more research work towards bringing something which the
present education is lacking. Every nation have education system which
put emphasis on keeping their own unique national identity, which is in
today’s reality is out of date. Today, we must teach people about the
concept of my world and our world,” His Holiness said. His
Holiness underlined the utilisation of human intelligence in developing
human ethics through scientific research.  “Moral ethic should become a
universal concept based on the scientific findings. Emotions developed
through training are more reasonable and logical than the spontaneous
emotions which are common even in animals also. Emotions based on
reason or research can be done only human beings. So let us make
serious discussion among concerned people on human ethics and come out
with clear presentation of their findings for implementation in
different schools. If there is benefit and positive results after the
implementation, then spread it wider,” he added.Speaking of the
role of teachers, His Holiness said affection can not be demonstrated
by words but rather by action. “If teachers talk about compassion and
do something rude then students would consider them as hypocrites. So,
teachers must introduce compassion through action, attitude and sincere
motivation. Therefore, teacher training is very important,” he said.”When
we talk about universal moral education, we should not touch any
religion because it could bring complications. So it should be purely
secular,” he added.His Holiness expressed his appreciation to
the state government for making best arrangement during his visit. “I
really enjoyed my meeting with the people, making pilgrimage to
different places in Sikkim. The chief minister personally took special
care in making the arrangement which I really appreciate. I feel my
visit was meaningful and hope that I may have made some contribution
for the well being of the Sikkimese people.”His Holiness
described Sikkim as an important state due to its strategic location.
“I usually tell my Indian friends that Tibetan Buddhist culture and the
Tibetan Buddhist faith are something like the first defense line of
India. Within India, the whole northern Himalayan region have strong
Buddhist faith and Buddhist culture, which form one defense line. I
jokingly tell my Indian friends that my visit here is strengthening the
defense line of India,” he said.