When the Dalai Lama visited Amsterdam, the stage was simply set with two big bouquets of flowers and a chair.

He was then invited by the Tibetan community, living in Switzerland since the fifties, to travel to Lausanne. The organising sangha wished to receive him, unlike Amsterdam, in a more traditional Tibetan way.

Long before, in preparation for the event, we had colorful wooden thormas – designed by the sangha themselves - made in Nepal, as well as a large thanka of the Medicine Buddha.

To further dress the stage, the sangha requested Kashba to lend them some bis size, high quality objects, like statues, rice mandalas, butterlamps, ornaments,  (a bit hard to find elsewhere in Europe).

However, Switzerland was not a part of the EC and the necessary paperwork for im- and export turned out to be very daunting.

The Swiss sangha suggested filling a bus with monks whose red robes would simply cover all items.

In the end the items ended up hiding in bed or shower of a big rented motorhome – and all the items apperently turned invisible during border crossings.

A little later we flew to Lausanne ourselves to unpack, assist to set up the stage and repack everything after the Dalai Lama’s four day visit.