Anaheim, United States: Fellow Nobel peace laureates joined thousands of followers of the Dalai Lama on Sunday to celebrate the Tibetan spiritual leader’s 80th birthday, kicking off a three-day honorary bash in California.
A string of minor celebrities also paid tribute to the crimson-robed 14th Dalai Lama ahead of his birthday on Monday, although protesters also gathered outside the event south of Los Angeles.
“He always says he is just a simple Buddhist monk,” said anti-landmines campaigner Jodi Williams, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1997, who sang a snippet of Happy Birthday to him.
“He may be a simple Buddhist monk, but he is the most rocking, compassionate simple Buddhist monk I know.”
The Dalai Lama was guest of honour at the Global Compassion Summit at the Honda Centre in Anaheim, speaking on “awakening compassion” and the “transformative power of creativity and art.”
About 18,000 followers packed into the conference centre gave him a standing ovation during the three-hour event, at which he was presented with a 2.4-metre high birthday cake.
“The Dalai Lama does not want any physical gifts. For him, this birthday is just like any other day,” said Lama Tenzin Dhonden, founder of Friends of the Dalai Lama.
“However, if we can help to create a more compassionate, kind planet, that would be the most beautiful gift of all,” added the Buddhist monk, who broke down in tears at one point in his tribute.
Other speakers included rapper MC Hammer, veteran talk show host Larry King and online entrepreneur Arianna Huffington, as well as TV actors Josh Radnor and Wilmer Valderrama.
“Whenever I get tired or I lose hope, I remember you,” said Iranian human rights campaigner and 2003 Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
“For 60 years, you have been fighting for the rights of the people of Tibet without becoming tired and without losing hope.”
Protests were staged outside by Shugden Buddhists, who revere a deity denounced since 1996 by the Dalai Lama — whom they accuse of religious persecution.
In 2011, the Dalai Lama delegated his political responsibilities to a prime minister elected by Tibetan exiles in an attempt to lessen his own totemic status and secure the movement’s future after his death.
But he remains the most powerful rallying point for Tibetans, both in exile and in their homeland.
The elderly monk’s promotion of non-violence along with his ready laugh have made him a global peace icon and kept Tibet firmly in the spotlight.
He has been a unifying force for Tibetans inside and outside the mountainous region, even if he has little to show for his decades of lobbying.
Formal negotiations with Beijing broke down in 2010 after making no headway.
Last year, the Dalai Lama told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that doctors had told him he could live to 100, adding, “in my dreams, I will die at the age of 113 years.”
The Tibetan religious figurehead was on Monday slated to discuss climate change and “wisdom, vision and experience,” along with other Nobel laureates, while events on Tuesday are to wrap up with a session on youth leadership.
The Dalai Lama marked his official 80th birthday last month — on June 21 according to the Tibetan lunar calendar — in Dharamsala, his hometown in exile in India.
The 80-year-old said that everyone had the potential for compassion, including violent extremists.
“We all come from our mother. We all have the deep experience, we all appreciate the mother’s reaction. Some, also including the so-called terrorists... they also have the potential to develop compassion,” he said.
“Some of the people who utilise hatred... If we express [a] message of love, message of compassion, then these people... they realise peace is the only way for [the] survival of humanity.”
