 | | Around 45,000 people flocked to a Hamburg stadium to listen to the Dalai Lama |
Hamburg, Germany, 28 July 2007 (Deutsche Welle) - The
Dalai Lama ended his 10-day visit to Hamburg on Friday with a call for
more compassion and criticism of the actions of Chinese security forces
in Tibet.
"The more we try to make others happy, the happier
we will be ourselves," the Dalai Lama told his audience at a tennis
stadium in the northern German port city.
An estimated 45,000
people are reported to have followed the lectures of the spiritual
leader of the Tibetans since he arrived in Hamburg last weekend.
The
Nobel Peace Prize winner will fly to the southern German city of
Freiburg on Saturday and will fly back Sunday to Dharamsala in India
where he lives in exile.
Dalai Lama criticizes Chinese actions in Tibet
Earlier,
the 72-year-old told German news agency dpa in an interview that
Chinese forces continued to commit grave human rights violations in
Tibet, adding there had been repeated incidents with Chinese guards at
the border.
 | | The Tibetan spiritual leader said happiness can come from making other happy |
"Many who tried to escape were shot," the Dalai Lama said, adding that Tibetan culture was being undermined by the Chinese.
Asked
if his popularity in western nations was a form of pressure on the
Chinese government, he said, "My main motivation is not the Tibet
issue. My concern is the promotion of human values."
He, however, conceded that the Chinese are increasingly more interested in Tibetan Buddhism.
"That is making their attitude on Tibet more positive," he added. China has controlled Tibet since 1950.
In
his lectures over the past days, the Dalai Lama has urged
industrialized nations to take more responsibility for the developing
world. He has also spoken out in favor of organ donation.
At an international conference for Buddhist nuns, he called for equal rights for nuns and monks in Tibetan Buddhism. |