NAMES IN THE NEWS : Dalai Lama Still ‘Simple Monk’
Nobel Peace Prize winner the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans, told compatriots today that the award has not changed him and that he remains a “simple Buddhist monk.”
“The prize was awarded for a nonviolent struggle and not for the Dalai Lama as an individual,” he told more than 3,000 Tibetans, mostly members of the Tibetan government in exile, monks, nuns, students and their parents.
The Dalai Lama returned Monday to Dharmsala from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10.
The Dalai Lama, 54, fled to exile in this northern Indian town in the foothills of the Himalayas after a failed 1959 uprising against the Chinese occupation of his homeland. More than 100,000 people accompanied him.
The Dalai Lama, also the political leader of Tibet, was awarded the prize for his advocacy of nonviolence in seeking an end to Chinese rule of Tibet.
“I am a simple Buddhist monk,” he said. “The Nobel prize does not make me different. I am happy that my message of love, compassion, tolerance and nonviolence is being heard worldwide.”
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