With the Dalai Lama (now 83) in town, celebrating the 50th birthday of the Tibet Institute in
Rikon, I wanted to research a little feature on our Tibetan community in
Winterthur.
Following the 1959 Tibetan
uprising in Lhasa against the control of the People’s Republic of China and the
Dalai Lama’s forced exile into India, thousands of Tibetan refugees fled. Many were
welcomed by Switzerland where they found work and shelter in Tösstal.
A little while later, the
Kuhn family, industrial entrepreneurs in Rikon, realized the refugees were in
need of a spiritual centre and after careful consultation with His Holiness the
14th Dalai Lama, they founded and financed a Tibetan monastery in the village. On
September 28, 1968, the monastery was inaugurated. Since then, a community of
around ten monks, headed by an abbot appointed by His Holiness, provides
spiritual support to the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
A library has also been built, focusing on Tibetan Buddhist Culture and History, comprising around 12'000 books and including a broad range of audio and video material as well as photo archives. As part of the Zürich network of academic libraries, it offers electronic access to all. It is open every Saturday from 10am until 6pm.
Next Saturday (29th) a Public Charity Concert will take place by the Musikkollegium
Winterthur at the Stadthaus to help raise funds for the monastery.
The music will be by Joseph
Haydn, Igor Stravinsky, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ludwig van Beethoven.
The event takes place between 5pm and 7pm and admission is free - there will be
instead a collection in favour of the Tibet Institute Rikon)
You can reserve seats here.
Tibet Institute Rikon
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