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Dalai Lama suggests a Hollywood movie about Buddha
2006-09-15
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader, ending a five-day visit to California, has suggested Hollywood film producers make a movie about the life of Buddha. "From Buddha's life story, maybe you'll get inspiration," he told a crowd of 6,000 Friday at Universal City studios attending the screening of "Milarepa", a movie about Tibet's mysteries directed by Buddhist Lama Neten Chkling Rinpoche. "Our intention is not the propagation of Buddhism, but helping the world. Hollywood has the power to affect the world through cinema and spread compassion," the Dalai Lama told the audience, standing next to actress Sharon Stone. The movie showing on Wednesday, followed a decision by the US House of Representatives to award the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian honor that has been bestowed on among others, Sir Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela. The award is in recognition of the Dalai Lama's advocacy of religious harmony, non-violence, and human rights and his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue through dialogue with the Chinese leadership. The Dalai Lama, in his visit to California, is giving a series of speeches under the heading "Compassion: the Source of Happiness". Stone, who like many Hollywood stars is a devotee of the Dalai Lama, shunned the presentation at the Venice Film festival of "Bobby," a movie she stars in along with Emilio Estevez, to accompany the religious leader on his tour of California. The Dalai Lama, 71, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his work to bring democracy and freedom to his people, fled Tibet after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. He then established a government-in-exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala and has worked to spread the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to Western nations.
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