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New Year 2009 Celebrations

At the New Year eve celebration at Dataran Merdeka, Malaysia.

Street Party Countdown 2009 Concert at Sungai Wang Plaza, Malaysia.

New Year countdown celebration at KLCC Park (Twin Tower), Malaysia.

A Filipino vendor blows paper horns to attract costumers outside a church in downtown Manila. Authorities urge the public to use safer noisemakers as many Filipinos traditionally welcome the New Year with loud and dangerous firecrackers.

Fireworks explode over Sydney Harbour during the pre-New Year's celebrations on Sydney Harbour in Sydney, Australia.

South Korean painter Kwon Sang-ho wearing a traditional dress paints for customers to promote an event to celebrate the New Year in Seoul, South Korea.

Paris Hilton attends a press conference in Sydney, Australia.Hilton and her sister Nicky are in Sydney to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Bolivian shaman Carmen Acho performs a traditional purification ritual holding an ostrich's egg over a patient's head in Lima.According to the shaman, the ritual cleans the participant of evil spirits and brings good luck for the new year.

Chinese men set up red lanterns as decorations ahead of the new year in Beijing, China.

Balloons are released into the air to celebrate the New Year in Sao Paulo.

A Christmas tree rises just outside the Moscow Kremlin, background right. New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.

I am at my friend's house for "count down" moment ago. It is also his "house warming" for his new house which is just next to the old one and, 1st January is his birthday...!!

Happy New Year 2009... Cheers...!!

Tibet Dilemma

The Dalai Lama has presided over an unprecedented conference of Tibetan exiles in Dharmsala, India.

HIgh on the agenda at the conference has been how to prepare for the death of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

The exiles fear that China may exploit the years while the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is growing up to try to appoint its own rival candidate.

A plan under hot discussion is whether the Dalai Lama should appoint a regent to take charge straight after his death, such as the charismatic young Karmapa Lama. Onlookers say that the Dalai Lama appears to be grooming the younger lama for this role.

The 600 delegates also debated whether to drop the Dalai Lama’s push for "meaningful autonomy" from China, replacing it with an unequivocal demand for independence.

After debate and prayer, the conference decided not to risk Chinese anger by seeking to split away from Tibet’s powerful neighbour.

Dolma Gyari, deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile,said that delegates reaffirmed support for the Dalai Lama’s approach - but also said it was time to end talks with Beijing.

In his address to the exiled Tibetans, the Dalai Lama warned that they would need to tread with extreme care and prudence in the next 20 years, as they were in "great danger".

Many leaders of the exiles believe that the larger Tibetan cause is at a crossroads.

A lighter moment as the Dalai Lama holds musician Phil Void by his beard in a friendly gesture.

Bhutanese King

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan crowned a young Oxford-educated bachelor as its new king, just six months after abolishing absolute monarchy to become the world’s youngest democracy.

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 28, became the youngest reigning monarch on the planet when he was handed the Raven Crown by his father, the former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in an ornate ceremony in the nation’s capital Thimpu.

The former King, who is 52, abdicated two years ago as part of a plan to democratise the insular Buddhist nation of 635,000 people, wedged between Indian and China, which had no roads until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999.

The Wangchuk dynasty, which has ruled Bhutan for a century and is still widely revered, had to wait until now for court astrologers to find an auspicious year for the coronation of the 5th Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King.

Hundreds of foreign guests attended the ceremony in the Golden Throne Room at Tashichhodzong, a fortress in Thimpu.

Also at the ceremony were the former King’s four wives, who are all sisters!!

The ceremony began with the sound of giant gongs and Buddhist chants as the Je Khenpo, or chief abbot, recited sacred sutras empowering the new King Jigme with virtues such as wisdom, compassion and vision.

The young monarch was then presented with eight auspicious articles: a mirror, medicine, curd, incense, fruit, vermillion, yellow mustard and a right-whorled conch shell.

Next came another round of offerings: seven precious symbols signifying devotion, valour and eternity, besides eight auspicious signs symbolising truth and wisdom.

Three days of national celebration will follow, involving masked dances and ritual offerings that will also mark the centenary of Bhutan’s monarchy.

Most Bhutanese believe that it is the kings who have allowed their nation and its unique culture to survive intact despite being surrounded by 1.3 billion Chinese and 1.1 billion Indians.

The former King’s coronation in 1974 marked the first time that foreign dignitaries and media were allowed into Bhutan, then a medieval society with no paved roads, no electricity and no hospitals.