DALAI LAMA MOOTS MOVIE ON BUDDHA
AFP
Friday, September 15, 2006 16:28 IST
Original LinkLOS ANGELES - The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader, during a five-day visit to California ending on Friday, 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 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.
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 established a government-in-exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala and worked to spread the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to Western nations.
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