Headlines
My smile made me Obama's friend: Dalai Lama
Dharamsala, April 6
Why did US President
Barack Obama call the Dalai Lama a friend? It was because he is
constantly smiling, said the Tibetan spiritual leader.
"My
smile," the Dalai Lama, who is currently visiting Japan, told a reporter
there on Sunday, who asked him: "Obama called you a friend; what's your
secret?"
"And that I try to be honest and truthful," added the Nobel Peace Laureate.
About
Xi Jinping, he mentioned that the Chinese president had said last year
in Paris and New Delhi that Buddhism has an important contribution to
make to Chinese culture.
Calling it a suprising statement from a
leader whose party believes that religion is the opiate of the masses,
the Dalai Lama said that it is related to what other Chinese
intellectuals have told him that ethics in China is at its lowest point
for 5,000 years. It is narrow-minded totalitarianism that is really like
an opiate, he added.
He contended that the 1.2 billion Chinese
people not only have a right to realistic information, but having found
it, have the ability to judge right from wrong.
The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland Tibet in 1959.