TibetNet, Dharamsala, March 6 2004:

Celebrating His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 50th year as a fully ordained Buddhist monk and pleading for his continued blessings, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and the Tibetan people today offered a long life puja for His Holiness at Tsuklakhang in McLeod Ganj. "At 19, I became a fully ordained monk under my teachers and this is my 50th year as a Buddhist monk. And that is my biggest pride, otherwise I have no other abilities to show off" said His Holiness.

The long life puja today was led by the young Ling Choktrul Rinpoche— the reincarnation of His Holiness' teacher Ling Rinpoche, with attendance of the representatives of the head of Tibet's four Buddhist sects and Bon— Tibet's indigenous religion, the CTA officers, 3000 monks and nuns and several thousand people.

His Holiness was ordained in 1954 on the auspicious 15th day of the 1st month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, the day of offering (Choenga Choepa), the final day of the Buddha's victorious philosophical and miracle battles with his opponents and their subsequent conversion into Buddhist faith.

Today, on the same special day, His Holiness asked people to remember the Buddha not just as a great philosopher or an enlightened being but for his work, for his philosophies. What Buddha taught ages ago still stand true even today.

Last week His Holiness ordained about a hundred monks including Ling Choktrul Rinpoche, Kundeling Ratsa Trulku Rinpoche, Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche, Amdo Changkya Rinpoche, Diru Shapdung Rinpoche and Nyungney Rinpoche.

He also said that for the last fifty years he must have ordained at least "10,000 monks and of which 1000 must have disrobed by now" and he burst into laughter. His Holiness stressed on the values of discipline and integrity while being a monk and uselessness of faking one's way out to make a living which merit more bad than good.

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