In a special world-premiere event at the Ridgefield Playhouse on June 17, Tencho Gyatso, niece of the Dalai Lama, will reveal the Dalai Lama’s life in a stunning visual presentation woven together with her personal and heartfelt narration. The presentation, The Dalai Lama’s Life Story in Music, Words, and Pictures, will be offered at 7:30pm.

Gyatso’s presentation will be accompanied by the moving music of Nawang Khechog, the first Tibetan Grammy Nominee and a renowned Tibetan flutist. His original music, which he intends as a means to inspire non-violence and compassion, fits well with the compassionately lived life of the Dalai Lama.

“The program is specifically designed to celebrate compassion as lived through the life of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama,” Gyatso explains. It outlines the moving journey of the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet as a young monk and his journey to fill his role as a world leader and one of the most beloved men of our time.

This event is presented by Redding’s Do Ngak Kunphen Ling (DNKL) Tibetan Center for Universal Peace (DNKL.org) to help raise much needed funds to support the compassionate work being done by DNKL, the local communities and other locations around the world.

Gyatso is the director of Tibetan empowerment and Chinese engagement programs for the International Campaign for Tibet, which promotes human rights and democratic freedoms for the Tibetan people. She is also founder of the Tibetan Children’s Village. She moved to the United States in 1999 to join her husband, Losang Gyatso, a contemporary Tibetan artist.

Khechog has won multiple awards in Tibet, India, Nepal and the United States as one of Tibet’s foremost world and spiritual music composers. He was a monk for 11 years and studied Buddhist philosophy and meditation with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many other Tibetan masters.

For more information and tickets, visit RidgefieldPlayhouse.org/Events/Living-Compassion. To find out about other DNKL events, visit DNKLDharma.org/Classes-Events.html. Event location: Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge, Ridgefield. See ad, page 25.