Please carefully read ALL of the following important information about how to make your seat reservation
SEATING
Foreign attendees will be seated together in the Foreigners’ Seating Area. This seating will be on the floor, so you are advised to bring a cushion/mat for comfort. If you require a chair or stool, you must bring your own as these will not be provided. If you must sit in a chair/stool, please be considerate of others by placing it in a location that will not block others’ view, such as in front of a pillar or next to a wall.
Within the Foreigners’ Seating Area, there will be several sections depending on which translation you are listening to. All attendees are requested to NOT sit in a translation section unless you are listening to that particular translation. Otherwise, there will not be enough seats for those attendees who must sit near their translators.
French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish listeners MUST sit near their translator in order to hear their translation via short-distance FM transmitter. A seating area specifically for each of these languages will be arranged depending on the number of people who have completed the Website Registration Form.
Chinese, English, Mongolian, Russian and Vietnamese listeners can hear their translation anywhere within the Foreigners’ Seating Area.
SEAT RESERVATIONS
The teaching venue will open at 3.30 pm (afternoon) on 24 December for you to reserve your seat. The closing time for the seat reservation is not yet confirmed, so you should come as early possible. You may reserve your seat with a cushion, cloth, piece of cardboard, or something similar.
As stated on www.dalailama.com: “Seating is usually reserved on a first come – first serve basis…. The conventional practice amongst Tibetans is that you take your seat on the first day of a series of teachings, mark it with your cushion or piece of cloth, and thereafter, keep to that same seat for the duration of the teachings. This is how Tibetans have traditionally avoided hassling with each other over who sits where every day…. Usually, people come to the teaching venue 1 or 2 days before the teaching begins to reserve their seating space.”