They’re Tibet-ing on a speedy recovery.
Acolytes of the Dalai Lama congregated during the July Fourth holiday outside Midtown’s ritzy Park Hyatt Hotel, where the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism is recuperating from knee replacement surgery.
Throngs of Dalai devotees, some wearing traditional Tibetan garb and prayer beads, posed for photos and prayed outside the West 57th Street hotel Thursday, walking around the block clockwise as if it were a Buddhist temple.
“We believe that if you circumambulate, it’s offering us good luck in our future and in our present also,” said Yonten Dorjee, 40, of Kew Gardens, Queens.
“We imagine this as our temple and His Holiness is inside,” Dorjee’s wife, Kalsang Youdon, 45, said.
The Dalai Lama arrived in New York City in late June — his first trip to the US since 2017 — to undergo knee replacement surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
The 88-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, has suffered health problems for years.
His June 28 surgery was successful and he’s expected to make a full recovery after his discharge a day later, said David J. Mayman, the chief of adult reconstruction and joint replacement service at the Upper East Side hospital, in a statement.
“His Holiness’s personal medical team and office were in constant communication with the surgical and medical staff at HSS,” Mayman said.
It’s unclear how long the Dalai Lama will be recovering at the five-star hotel across from Carnegie Hall, where admirers’ have been making daily devotional visits, Gothamist first reported.
Existence may be suffering, as the Buddha taught, but the mood outside the hotel has been joyous.
The Dalai Lama’s personal cook Tenzin Pasang made an appearance at one point Thursday and was immediately greeted by spectators as though he were Taylor Swift.
“I heard that [the Dalai Lama’s] treatments were successful, so that’s why we’re very happy,” said Kalsang Phuntsok, 58, who brought his family from Jackson Heights.
“He shares wisdom throughout all of Tibet and India, and my family is so proud of what he’s done,” said Phuntsok’s son Baruwa Kunshey, 11.
China views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist, a charge the religious leader has dismissed.
Indeed, his New York City visit came shortly after a bipartisan House delegation visited him in northern India — a trip that drew a threatening letter from China’s embassy to the US.
“The visit interferes with China’s internal affairs, violates China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the letter stated.
“Free Tibet” chatter was scarce outside the Park Hyatt among the Independence Day crowd.
For Ella Krivova, 37, an Upper East Sider who was grateful for the holiday off so she could spend more time near the Dalai Lama, the religious leader’s presence itself was a “precious opportunity.”
“This city can be so materialistic, being here helps you to be closer to the teaching and to develop and deepen your life,” she said.
“His mindstream is very vast and kind and generous so it’s to be connected to the teaching and to liberate and help other people in the future.”
