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Uyghurs Invited onto Stage with His
Holiness The Dalai Laman
Rebiya Kadeer and Nury Turkel profoundly honored.
Uyghur American Association |November 14, 2005.
 (Washington, D.C.) His Holiness the Dalai Lama
delivered a public talk on Sunday November 13 at the
MCI Center in Washington, DC. Two representatives of
the Uyghur community were profoundly honored to
participate in a procession of Himalayan peoples,
arranged to mark the 70th birthday of His Holiness.
Rebiya Kadeer, the Uyghur human rights activist,
business woman and former prisoner of conscience,
appeared on stage with Nury Turkel, President of the
Uyghur American Association, along with other people
representing countries including Nepal, India, Russia
and Bhutan.
At the end of the procession, His Holiness stood at
the front of the stage surrounded by people in the
procession, with Rebiya Kadeer’s hand firmly clasped
in his own. Previously, Mr. Turkel had presented
Holiness with a traditional Uyghur hat – a doppa – and
all three had shared a joke as His Holiness asked
whether he should wear it on the front or back of his
head.
His Holiness The Dalai Lama, whose talk was entitled
‘Global Peace Through Compassion’, spoke first about
the situation faced by the Tibetan people under
Chinese administration. His Holiness compared them to
the Uyghur people, who along with Mongolians in Inner
Mongolia “continue to live through difficult times.”
The Tibetan and Uyghur people have shared a strong
friendship throughout the centuries, a friendship
which has been strengthened in recent years by the
troubles they share in their respective homelands.
The main body of His Holiness’s talk was on the need
for people to display compassion to their fellow
beings. He expressed the hope that while the twentieth
century was a century of bloodshed and violence, the
twenty-first century should be one of dialog and
compassion.
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Uyghur American Association (UAA)
1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC
20006
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