When it was agreed that the FPMT would invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give the Kalachakra initiation in Sydney, the thirteen FPMT centers agreed to underwrite the tour. In order words, they accepted the responsibility to bear any losses.

And this was not an improbability. The most recent Kalachakra initiation in the West, in Barcelona in 1993, for example, had seen a loss. And, generally speaking, there is not such an appreciation of the benefits of generosity among Westerners as there is in the East.

Nevertheless, the centers agreed, and planning went ahead. “We had a budget of A$750,000 [$600,000],” said George Farley, the Chairman of the National Executive of the Visit. “At best, we hoped to break even. We could have been happy with that. And of course, anything above that we would offer to His Holiness.

But the reality far exceeded expectations. It was announced towards the end of the Kalachakra ceremonies in Sydney that A$1.5 million ($1.2 million) had come in. Costs remained as budgeted, so it was possible to offer to His Holiness the excess A$750,000.

His Holiness, in turn, announced to the press his intention to give it all to various charitable organizations world-wide. He offered A$100,000 to non-government organizations working in Tibet, such as Medicins sans Frontières and the Swiss Red Cross; A$100,000 to other NGOs such as Save the Children Fund and World Vision; A$100,000 to the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, started with some of the proceeds of His Holiness’s Nobel prize; A$100,000 to be divided up between many small monastic institutions in India and Australia; and A$350,000 to specifically targeted projects in the fields of health and education working for the benefit of recently arrived refugees from Tibet to India and Nepal.

The money has come from thousands of people around the world. The bulk of funds, however, came from the eight corporate Sponsors, the 315 Benefactors who offered A$1500 each, the 2000 Friends who gave A$50 each, as well as the Kalachakra initiation ticket holders.

“Everything was beyond our expectations.”

The visit sponsored the production of 75,000 copies of a commemorative issue of Mandala offered to everyone who came to events of His Holiness.