Outside a Midtown hotel, devotees pray for the Dalai Lama's recovery

The Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown sits directly across the street from the Russian Tea Room and Carnegie Hall and sees plenty of foot traffic on any given day. But this week has been different. In addition to the usual tourists and office workers was a steady stream of Tibetan Buddhists, many of whom were wearing traditional clothing and clutching prayer beads or prayer wheels.

The devotees were outside the hotel because of who was inside: Tenzin Gyatso, better known as the Dalai Lama. For days, the Tibetan spiritual leader had been staying at the hotel while recovering from knee replacement surgery, according to statements from his representatives. For some in the community who were closely following his health, this made the hotel a very special place.

“This hotel is the luckiest hotel for all of us,” said Jackson Heights resident Jampa Yangkyi, who, like many other devotees, was circumambulating the block and praying for the Dalai Lama’s health on Wednesday.

The spiritual leader has regularly visited the city over the decades. In 2003, he drew a crowd of 65,000 at Central Park , and spoke of the need for compassion and nonviolence. He continues to inspire the city’s Tibetan community, which numbers around 9,000. His image can be seen at many Tibetan restaurants as well as cultural events, such as the weekly “Gorshey” dance events that take place on Wednesdays, a holy day for many Tibetans.

While some outside the hotel said they had been concerned about the Dalai Lama’s health prior to his June 28 surgery, they were reassured afterward by a statement from his aides, noting that the procedure at the Hospital for Special Surgery had gone smoothly.

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama had a total knee replacement surgery this morning, which was very successful,” read a statement last Friday from Dr. Tsetan D Sadutshang and Tenzin N. Taklha, the Dalai Lama's personal physician and secretary respectively. It wasn’t clear how long the Dalai Lama would remain at the hotel.

Occasionally, Buddhist monks in crimson robes could be seen entering and exiting the Hyatt. For some Tibetan Buddhists, the timing was especially auspicious, as the Dalai Lama’s 89th birthday is on Saturday. For the occasion, one group has organized an online fundraiser to sponsor a Times Square billboard wishing him a happy birthday.

Just around the corner from the Hyatt, Yang Zom was walking up Seventh Avenue with a friend. Both of them held prayer beads.

Zom had come from Astoria, and said her husband had come earlier in the day but had to rush home to feed the dog. Zom said she’d circled the hotel three times before walking to nearby Central Park to meet with a prayer group, before returning to circle the hotel several more times with a friend.

“I have a knee problem, but I still get around and I said, ‘I can do it. I can do it,’” she said.

By virtue of playing host to “His Holiness,” as she called the Dalai Lama, Zom said the hotel had become a holy site.

“This is like our temple,” said Zom. “He’s everything for us.”

Zom said she chanted a healing prayer known as the Buddha Medicine Mantra, as did Dolma Choephel, who arrived from her home in Woodside by 9:30 in the morning. A couple hours later she said she’d walked 11 laps around the block.

“He being our leader, we were worried, emotional and happy at the same time because he's coming to the city and we are getting a chance to get his blessings,” said Choephel, who works as a babysitter. “Now we’re very happy because the surgery has been successful.”

Yangkyi, from Jackson Heights, saw the event as a fortuitous one, as it had been seven years since the Dalai Lama’s last visit to the city and she now anticipated would receive a blessing from him “very soon.” She said she prayed for him at home every day.

“Every morning we pray for the God, and we offer the pure water on our silver bowl, and then we pray for His Holiness and all the gods and goddesses,” Yangkyi said.

While most of the devotees outside the hotel were Tibetan, an exception was Janice Wilde, a resident of the East Village. Wilde said she first became aware of the Dalai Lama in the 1980s, when she heard the story of his exodus from Tibet as a young man in 1959.

Since then, she said she’d seen the Dalai Lama in person “many times,” at the Beacon Theater, Central Park and Radio City Music Hall.

“Every time, his teachings touch my heart,” she said, after prostrating outside the hotel, with Yangkyi by her side. “He's so special, and I'm grateful for him.”