His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"I feel that is is extremely important that each individual realise their responsibility for preserving the environment, to make it a are of daily life, create the same attitude in their families and spread it to the community."
HH the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader and Head of State of the Tibetan people. At the age of two, he was recognized as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, and began his monastic education when he was six. Following China's invasion of Tibet in 1949, the young Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full political power.
Finally, in 1959, with the brutal suppression by Chinese troops of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa, he was forced to escape into exile in India. Since then, he has been living in Dharamsala in the north of India which is now the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
From there, he has continued to work tirelessly for Tibet through appeals to the United Nations and Heads of State and governments around the world, many of whom have urged the Chinese leadership to enter into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, as leader of the Tibetan people. In 1987, His Holiness proposed the Five-Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first step towards a peaceful solution to the worsening human rights situation in Tibet. This plan envisages that Tibet will become a sanctuary and zone of peace in the heart of Asia.
His Holiness has consistently advocated policies of non-violence throughout the struggle for the liberation of Tibet. In recognition of his work for peace and for his concern for global environmental problems, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. More recently, in September 2006, he received the highest civilian honour in the United States, the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of his advocacy for human rights.
Now in his seventies, His Holiness continues to accept invitations to teach and speak around the world and is respected as a true spiritual teacher whose warmth, compassion and wisdom touch the hearts of all he meets and as a spokesman for the compassionate and peaceful resolution of human conflict.
Less well known is his intense personal interest in the sciences; he has said that if he were not a monk, he would have liked to be an engineer. He has a vigorous interest in learning about the newest developments in science. He regularly attends conferences at the Mind Life Institute, a body which brings together leading figures from the behavioral sciences and the Buddhist contemplative traditions, to promote the creation of a contemplative, compassionate, and rigorous experimental and experiential science of the mind which could guide and inform medicine, neuroscience, psychology, education and human development.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has visited the U.K. regularly over the last twenty years. In 2004, he gave teachings in Glasgow, again at the invitation of Dharma Network.
