Tenzin Gyatso Dalai Lama XIV (1935 - )
H.H. Dalai Lama promotes a vegetarian lifestyle wherever he can.
His own kitchen is 100% vegetarian:*
"Thousands - millions and billions - of animals are killed for
food. This is very sad. We human beings can live without meat,
especially in our modern world. We have a great variety of
vegetables and other supplementary foods, so we have the capacity
and the responsibility to save billions of lives. I have seen many
individuals and groups promoting animal rights and following a
vegetarian diet. This is excellent (...) I think that our basic
human nature is vegetarian - making effort not to harm other living
beings. If we apply intelligence, we can create a sound,
nutritional program."
In recent years the Dalai Lama has also frequently spoken about the
importance of wildlife conservation. In April 2005 he launched a
campaign by Care for the Wild International and the Wildlife Trust
of India to combat the illegal wildlife trade along Tibet's border
with India and Nepal. But he gave a particularly strong message
direct to Tibetans from Tibet during the Kalachakra religious
ceremony at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, in January 2006. On the
final day of the empowerment the Dalai Lama said he was "ashamed"
to see images of Tibetans decorating themselves with skins and furs
of animals like tigers and leopards. He told Tibetans from Tibet
and exile communities:
"When you go back to your respective places, remember what I had
said earlier and never use, sell, or buy wild animals, their
products or derivatives."
Sources:
The Governement of Tibet in Exile
The book: Worlds in Harmony, Dialogues on Compassionate
Action
DalaiLama.Com
Video H.H. Dalai Lama's 2006 Kalachakra Speech Pro Veg Against
Fur (Tibetan)
Tibetan Text of H.H. Dalai Lama's 2006 Kalachakra Speech Pro Veg
Against Fur [PDF- 44 KB]
Amature Video of Burning Animal Skins in Tibet After H.H.
Speech
Also available via Shabkar.Org: H.H. Dalai Lama on Envirnoment
[PDF- 425 KB]
See also RawVeg.Info
* When H.H. Dalai Lama is in the company of non-vegetarians, he
sometimes says "I am a Tibetan monk, not a vegetarian" and
occasionally takes meat. As an observation one could say that
especially for (Western) vegetarian Buddhists it is not easy to
understand why amongst the many ideals and practises H.H. Dalai
Lama lives up to, abstaining from eating meat under all
circumstances is not one of them. However within Buddhist Dharma it
is not done to proudly judge a man like His Holiness because of
statements and outer actions we might not understand. See also the
article of André Kalden and the article of Catherine Clyne:
Vegetarians and the Dalai Lama;