Desmond Tutu

The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu shared a close bond despite their religious differences. Image: GCIS/ Flickr

Desmond Tutu: Why the Dalai Lama opted not to attend friend’s funeral

The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu are famous friends from two different religious background, so why did His Holiness dodge the funeral?

Desmond Tutu

The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu shared a close bond despite their religious differences. Image: GCIS/ Flickr

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama are known for their special, unexpected friendship.The two religious leaders undeniably bat for two very different teams, but this failed to prevent them from forming this bond. Certainly, Tutu himself described the Dalai Lama as an ‘older spiritual brother’.

With Tutu’s funeral taking place on Saturday, much speculation has revolved around where or not the Dalai Lama would be in attendance.

Indeed, the South African government has denied the Buddhist icon entry into the country not once, but twice. In line with this, many believed this might be the reason for the Dalai Lama’s absence at his friend’s final farewell ceremony.

Desmond Tutu
The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu shared a close bond despite their religious differences. Image: GCIS/ Flickr

Dalai Lama’s absence from Desmond Tutu’s funeral explained

Interestingly, the Dalai Lama’s expected absence from proceedings is due to a completely different reason.

Commenting on the decision, the Dalai Lama’s representative Ngodup Dorjee commented that His Holiness had indeed wanted to attend Tutu’s funeral.

“The present situation is very different from [back then] when he wanted to come here and applied for a Visa, but those circumstances were different. Today there are restrictions on travel, and he has to protect himself from Covid-19 also”.

Ngodup Dorjee

However, the Dalai Lama had opted against it due to his advanced age and the ongoing threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, Dorjee responded to questions over whether or not this would be different if the pandemic wasn’t an issue.

The Dalai Lama’s representative explained that a week probably wouldn’t have been enough time to arrange travel to South Africa.

Dalai Lama mourns loss of his friend

In his absence, the Dalai Lama sent his condolences to Desmond Tutu’s family during this difficult time. In a statement released by His Holiness in the wake of the Archbishop’s death, the Dalai Lama had acknowledged their special bond. The Dalai Lama had reached out to Desmond’s daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu.

“As you know, over the years, your father and I enjoyed an enduring friendship. I remember the many occasions we spent time together, including the week here at Dharamsala in 2015 when we were able to share our thoughts on how to increase peace and joy in the world. The friendship and the spiritual bond between us was something we cherished.”

Dalai Lama