Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling will meet Wednesday with U.S. State Department representatives, FBI personnel and event organizers to discuss security and traffic concerns surrounding a scheduled three-day visit by the Dalai Lama to the Wood River Valley in September.
Femling said Monday he is concerned about how his department will handle crowds should a great number of people arrive to attend the visit by the exiled leader of Tibet.
"I'm withholding judgment until I have a serious sit-down meeting this week," Femling said, explaining that he has had initial contact with Renee Kline, project director for the Dalai Lama visit to Sun Valley. Klein is a representative of Kiril Sokoloff, a financial analyst and Ketchum resident who has been organizing the Dalai Lama's visit, which will be centered around a spiritual presentation on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who requested that His Holiness also meet with the children of Idaho, made the official invitation to Idaho. The Dalai Lama also is scheduled to dedicate a large Tibetan prayer wheel in Ketchum.
"Our joint position is that the special event will be less than 50,000 people supported by an integrated plan, including traffic management and involving all local partners and stakeholders," Kline said, after a discussion with Femling. "We will release a press statement on Thursday after our meeting on Wednesday with all local pertinent agencies."
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, was born Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6, 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, according to the official Web site of the government of Tibet in exile, www.tibet.com.
In 1950 at age 14, while still undergoing his formal education, the Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full political power as the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people after soldiers from the Peoples Liberation Army of China invaded the country. After nine years of struggle to find a peaceful solution to the Chinese-Tibetan conflict, a growing resistance movement broke into the largest demonstration in Tibetan history, March 10, 1959 in Lhasa. The Chinese army crushed the uprising. The Dalai Lama escaped to India where he was given political asylum. Today, there are more than 120,000 Tibetan people in exile. Since 1960, the Dalai Lama has resided in Dharamsala, India.
Femling said he has much to learn about the Dalai Lama and the event organizers before he can know how to proceed with public safety decisions for the event.
Hailey Police Chief Brian McNary said he has been studying up on His Holiness. He is excited to learn more about the Dalai Lama's visit to the area and how his department can help with security and crowd management. McNary, no stranger to visiting dignitaries, has a picture on the wall of his office of Vice President Dick Cheney standing with him during a 2004 election campaign visit to the valley.
Femling said news of the event came to his office the day after the close of the Sarah Johnson murder trial, who was convicted of murdering her parents, Diane and Alan Johnson, in 2003 in Bellevue. Femling said at the time he was not quite ready to talk about the visit of the Dalai Lama, but he is curious to know what people from Washington, D.C., will have to say on Thursday.
The Dalai Lama's planned visit coincides with the release in September of the latest of his many publications, a book titled The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. It also is scheduled to be the first stop in a tour of the United States.
The State Department is formally responsible for the Dalai Lama's personal security, said Rod Rinker, a local volunteer who is busy this week sharing his knowledge of the possible sites for the event with Federal officials. "This needs to be the most secure event, like the inauguration of a president."
