Exhaustion forces His Holiness to cancel Botswana visit

By Lobsang Tenchoe

DHARAMSALA, August 14: His Holiness the Dalai Lama has expressed deep regret at having to cancel his impending visit to Botswana due to exhaustion.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has cancelled his scheduled visit to Botswana due to exhaustion and on his physicians advise against undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks, a statement on the official webpage of the Tibetan spiritual leader, dalailama.com stated.

“His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year old body was telling him to rest. Since his physicians have also advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks, His Holiness will return to Dharamsala to recuperate,” stated a statement on the dalailama.com.

The Tibetan spiritual leader is said to have written to both the President of the Republic of Botswana, Ian Khama and President of Mind & Life Institute, Dr Susan Bauer-Wu expressing his deep regret at having to concede to exhaustion and cancel his visit to Botswana.

The Tibetan Nobel laureate was scheduled to visit Botswana, the land locked country in Southern Africa from August 15 to 20 to take part in the Mind & Life Conference and other engagements.

The Dalai Lama has further offered his apologies to the organizers of the conference as well as all the panelists for having to cancel his scheduled visit.

The Republic of Botswana, unlike its neighbor South Africa which has turned down the Dalai Lama’s visa application five times, has confirmed in July that it will receive the Tibetan spiritual leader in August as a ‘foreign dignitary’ despite Chinese objection.