Buddhist monk to share teachings in Whangarei

One of the world's most revered Tibetan Buddhist monks and scholars has arrived in Whangarei to hold a four-day workshop and to attend Waitangi Day festivities.
Venerable Geshe Sonam Rinchen, the senior teacher at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala, India, will be in New Zealand for 10 days. He will fit in a visit to the South Island between his teaching at the Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling Buddhist Centre in Whangarei and going to Waitangi.
Geshe Sonam Rinchen will be accompanied to Waitangi by nine other Tibetan monks and the 15-year-old youth said to be the reincarnation of Geshe Ngawang Dhargye who set up a Buddhist Centre in Otago in 1985.
Sonan Rinchen, 77, arrived in Auckland from India on Sunday and travelled to Whangarei after a day of rest. The new Rinpoche Dhargye arrives on February 4.
Buddhist Centre spokeswoman Kaari Schlebach said it was a great honour to have a monk and scholar of Geshe Sonam Rinchen's standing visit Whangarei.
"He could go anywhere in the world but he's chosen to come here," Ms Schlebach said.
People are coming to Whangarei from all over Australia and New Zealand to attend his teachings on "Homage to Compassion".
"This is also an opportunity for local people who are not Buddhists to come and hear this great man's teaching as well."
At Dharamshala, Geshe Sonam Rinchen teaches every day for 10 months of the year, a time during which thousands of students make the journey to hear him.
He has visited Waitangi four times before. It is a place where he has experienced a strong spiritual connection, goodwill and mutual respect, he told the Northern Advocate during his last visit in 2009. He felt a "special connectedness" with Maori people during his first visit to Waitangi in 2000, he said.