Four out of every five tickets sold at the Edinburgh Usher Hall for the Dalai Lama public talk were online which was an all time record for the Usher Hall.
Online purchases were made from as far as Shetland in the north to London in the south. There were many purchases from Inverness and the Highlands and organizers presume this was from people who had failed to secure tickets to His Holiness’s talk in the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, which sold out in just 24 hours of the trip and the talks being announced.
The morning lecture, Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, is part of a five month series of talks marking the 20th anniversary of The Edinburgh Lectures.
A combination of the huge popularity of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the ease and speed of online booking meant that the Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, the venue for the first of three talks by The Dalai Lama during his trip to Scotland in June, sold out in 48 hours of the visit being announced. Edinburgh's main concert hall has a seating capacity of 2200.
Victor Spence, co-ordinator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s historic visit to Scotland said:
“That a talk by his Holiness should sell-out is not in itself surprising, but the speed at which both of these events did so shows just how much demand there is to hear this ‘simple Buddhist monk.’ And for people to have booked tickets from as far a field as Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, Lincoln, London, Oldham, York, Mull and Shetland, really does tell us something about how motivated many people are to get to these lectures.
On his visit to Edinburgh, the Dalai Lama will also have a private viewing of archive material relating to Tibet during a visit to the National Library of Scotland.
Following his Edinburgh visit, the Dalai Lama heads North to Dundee where he will give The Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion at the city’s Caird Hall at the invitation of the University of Dundee. The event comes at the end of a week of graduation ceremonies in the city hall.
In this lecture, entitled "Education of The Heart", he will talk about why we need to pay greater attention to "education of the heart", as well as "education of the brain", such as cultivating love and compassion.
“I expect we will have a repeat performance when tickets for the Dundee Caird Hall talk by The Dalai Lama go on sale on February 1,” said Spence.
Dalai Lama Scottish schedule
Thursday 21st June (p.m.)
Arrives in Edinburgh
Friday 22nd June (a.m.)
Private Visit to National Library of Scotland
Friday 22nd June (a.m)
Public Talk at the Usher Hall
The 20th Anniversary of The Edinburgh Lectures
‘Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World’
Friday 22nd June (p.m.)
Public Talk at the Caird Hall
The Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion
‘Education of The Heart’
Saturday 23rd June (pm)
Public Talk at The Eden Court Theatre
‘Be the change’