Scots Tibet study receives Dalai Lama blessing
The List, Sept 4, 2007
Edinburgh, Scotland (UK) -- A team of Scottish academics will undertake a research project studying more than six centuries of Tibetan history.
The 10-year St Andrews University project will be led by the Professor Mario Aguilar, of the school of divinity, and has been blessed by the Dalai Lama. It will concentrate on the relationship between politics and religion in Tibet from 1391 up to modern times.
The Professor said: “The question that remains unanswered for the future is how Tibetans are going to manage religion and politics within a Tibetan Buddhist practice that incorporates past histories and a Tibetan region that remains part of contemporary China.
“This research project aims at covering the historical ground as to help answer such a question that will arise with the aging of the 14th Dalai Lama and his future reincarnation.”
The project will study ancient Tibetan Buddhist texts and collections of writings and lectures by the Dalai Lama.
Meanwhile, the actor and devout Buddhist Richard Gere has called for a boycott of Beijing Olympics in an effort to end human rights abuses in Tibet.