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. We are making every effort to reserve an area for this purpose, in the foreigner’s seating area.
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, 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.
Other languages should be audible via FM transmission, anywhere within the Foreigners’ Seating Area.
SEAT RESERVATION TIMES
Please read the following important information carefully, regarding seat reservation times at the teaching venue, which will happen in two stages, to allow for the Tashi Lhunpo Inauguration Ceremony on 19th December.
- 18th December at 5.00pm: ONLY Dignitaries, Latul Geshes, Foreigners and Indian attendees, and people newly arrived from Tibet can reserve their seating at this time.
- 19th December in lunch break (after conclusion of the Tashi Lhunpo Inauguration Ceremony and before the afternoon Teaching Session): All remaining people can reserve their seating: Monks, Nuns & General Public from Himalayan regions.
Please note: If you are arriving after these times, it is NOT possible to reserve seating before you arrive. Every effort is being made by the JLT Organizing Committee to ensure there is sufficient seating available in each language area, to accommodate attendees arriving later.
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.”