Saturday’s third annual Marymoor Park Pet Blessing will feature Geshe Thupten Phelgye

Published 12:40 pm Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Geshe Thupten Phelgye will return to Redmond’s Marymoor Park for the third annual Pet Blessing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at the south picnic shelter.

Geshe Thupten Phelgye is a Buddhist monk in the tradition of the Dalai Lama and founder of the Universal Compassion Movement for world peace.

Geshe Thupten Phelgye, of Tibetan origin, grew up and was schooled in India after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959. In 1973 at the age of 17, he became a monk at Sera Jey Monastic University and in 1991 he finished his vigorous 18 years of traditional Buddhist philosophical studies.

In 1984 while helping a patient to the hospital, he was asked to buy some meat at the local slaughterhouse. Witnessing the slaughtering of animals so profoundly moved him that he “vowed to protect, care and advocate for the voiceless ones” for the rest of his life.

He has been nominated and elected to the Tibetan Parliament in Exile for two terms, is a member of the Sulha Peace Project in the Middle East and served as the first global scholar in residence at Gonzaga University. Currently, he is an adjunct professor at Eastern Washington University for the 2013-14 academic year. He travels around the world promoting world peace and environmental protection, working for social justice and animal rights.