Dalai Lama wants Tibetans to imbibe ancient Indian wisdom

Bengaluru: Asserting that India was the only nation to integrate material development with the inner world, the Dalai Lama on Sunday advised Tibetans to imbibe ancient Indian wisdom as well as environmental protection.

The Nobel laureate also called for efforts to revive ancient Indian values and knowledge as part of educational curriculum.

"Tibetans can play a major role by reintroducing ancient Indian wisdom, rich with philosophical and ethical inquiry in the land of its origin," said the 82-year-old 14th Dalai Lama at an educational event here.

Addressing about 12,000 students and faculty of city-based Seshadripuram Group of Institutions on "Education for wisdom and compassion for rebuilding the nation", the monk said Tibetans could contribute to the world in dealing with moral, ethical and political crises.

"It is the moral duty of the Tibetans to preserve the fragile ecology of Tibet and its rivers -- Brahmaputra, Ganga, Yellow River, Mekong, Salween and the Indus -- which are a source of livelihood for over a billion people living downstream.

"Therefore, they have the moral right and responsibility to air their grievance on the ecological degradation in Tibet," the Tibetan spiritual leader said.

The Dalai Lama said: "We could reintroduce fundamental inner human values in the school system purely in secular context without touching religion so that education on love and compassion becomes universally acceptable." 

Born in Taktser hamlet in north-eastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognised at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He fled to India from Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese in 1959.

The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign for democracy and freedom in his homeland.

India is home to over 100,000 Tibetans settled majorly in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka among other states.