Dalai Lama’s nephew dies on Valentine’s day ‘Walk for Tibet’ in Florida
Elspeth Lodge February 15, 2011 – 12:38 pm
A Valentine’s Day “Walk for Tibet” turned deadly for the nephew of the Dalai Lama late Monday, when he was struck by a car on a Florida highway.
Jigme Norbu was walking on the edge of a local highway in north-eastern Florida when hit by an SUV at 7:26 p.m.. He “was determined to be deceased upon the arrival of emergency services,” the Highway Patrol said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We got the message today,” the Dalai Lama’s personal secretary Chhime Rigzing told AFP by telephone. “He asked about how this had happened. He was saddened by the news.”
“We have requested His Holiness to remember Mr. Jigme (Norbu) in his prayers today.”
Mr. Norbu was on a Valentine’s Day “Walk for Tibet” with a small group of activists who aimed to raise awareness of human rights abuses in Tibet, according to an activist website.
The 45-year-old victim was the son of The Dalai Lama’s oldest brother, Takster Rinpoche, and was a resident of Bloomington, Indiana.
With files from AFP
