Touts charge £120 for £15 tickets to hear Dalai Lama

TICKET touts were charging up to £120 for the chance to see the Dalai Lama give his only public talk in Edinburgh yesterday.

Eager to cash in on the last day of a six-day Scottish visit by the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, ticket prices, originally 15, soared as crowds turned up outside the Usher Hall for the world peace flag ceremony and concert.

Among the 2,200 people at the event were Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Lesley Hinds, and the celebrity hairdresser Charlie Miller, a Buddhist.

The keynote address from the Dalai Lama, which was spiced with humour, outlined his opposition to violence and his views that universal disarmament was a possibility.

Clad in burgundy-coloured robes, he sat on a golden throne and reduced the crowd to tears when he embraced a young blind girl, Amy Moar, who suffers from saldino-mainzer syndrome. She had earlier sung a song that she composed, The Why of a Miracle.

Earlier in the day, the Tibetan spiritual leader was met at Dunfermline Abbey by the leaders of Scotland’s main religious groups, before going on to address about 4,000 people who had gathered to hear him.