December 19th, 2007

Bodhgaya, Dec 19 (ANI): The 17th Karmapa Lama, Ogyen Thrinley Dorje has
visited a free medical camp in Bodhgaya.

Dorje is monitoring the week-long camp set up by the Taiwan Root Medical
Peace Corporation in collaboration with the Kagyupa International Monlam
Trust

as part of the ongoing International Kagyu Monlam prayer festival.

“I’m from Taiwan. The Karmapa invites us. We can offer free medicine and
service to the people who come here,” said Chichun Liu, founder of
Taiwan Root
Medical Peace Corp.

Sanjay Kumar, a patient, said he had come to the camp for treatment.

The eight-day long festival aims to promote and establish worldwide
peace, harmony and happiness, a tradition that was commenced in Tibet
over 500 years

ago by the Kagyu Sect, which is one of four major sects in Tibetan Buddhism.

Over 7,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and devotees have congregated at the
Mahabodhi temple to pray for the first time since 1983.

Dorje, one of the highest lamas in Tibet’s Buddhist hierarchy, is the
only senior monk to be recognised by both Beijing and The Dalai Lama.

The Karmapa escaped to India in January 2001 after an undertaking
arduous 1,400- km (875-mile) journey through the Himalayas. He is now
settled in

Dharamsala, the headquarters of The Dalai Lama. (ANI)