Richard Gere Sends Message Of Support To Nepal & Tibet

Richard Gere has sent a message of support to the people of Nepal and Tibet following devastating landslides and flash floods on their border in which at least a thousand people are believed to have died.

“My heart is with the people of Nepal and Tibet today,” Gere wrote in a message posted on social media on Thursday.

The actor and humanitarian has had strong ties with Nepal and Tibet for close to 50 years having first travelled to the former with Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins in 1978, where his meeting with Tibetan monks and Lamas led to his conversion to Tibetan Buddhism in the early 1980s.

He met the Tibetan Buddhism’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in India in the early 1980s and ever since has advocated for the human rights of Tibetan people and the preservation of their culture.

“There are places in this world that, once they touch your heart, never really leave you. The Himalayas — their people, their spirituality, their extraordinary beauty — have been part of my life and my heart for many years,” continued Gere in his post.

“Seeing the devastation caused by these floods, from Nepal to Gyirong and the Shigatse region of Tibet, is heartbreaking. Search and rescue efforts are only just beginning, and these first hours are filled with uncertainty, but also with hope. Today there are no borders in our compassion.”

Gere’s message came some 24 hours after a massive glacial collapse sparked flash floods in the Himalayan Nepal-Tibet border region.

Terrifying footage showed a wall of water mixed with debris and ice crashing into a border crossing in Gyirong, sending people running for their lives as it then swept down the valley destroying everything in its path.

Figures around the loss of life and missing are still unclear, but more than 1,000 people are reported to be missing, with at least half of then tourists hailing from countries including the U.S., Australia, Britain, France and Canada.