Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has expressed his concern over Buddhist violence in Burma and Sri Lanka, and once again called on Buddhists to put it to an end.
Speaking to his devotees on the first day of his teachings on Nagarjuna’s Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning, The Dalai Lama said,
“Earlier there were crisis among Buddhist and Muslims in Burma and Sri Lanka. Burmese monks were even regarded as terrorists and it is very sad,”
“Recently, I visited Prague, Czech Republic to attend Forum 2000 and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was also there. I spoke with her and she was really concerned,”
“Have faith in your own religion but respect all other religions,”
Earlier this year the Dalai Lama issued a similar appeal, saying,
"Killing people in the name of religion is really very sad, unthinkable, very sad."
"Nowadays even Buddhists now involved, in Burma and Sri Lanka also. Buddhist monks ... destroy Muslim mosques or Muslim families. Really very sad."
See our earlier post:
Dalai Lama urges Buddhist monks to stop violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka (08 May 2013)
Also see:
'Buddhism & Violence' - academics discuss Sri Lanka and Burma (31 August 2013)
Buddhists never extremist – Mahinda (03 June 2013)
Buddhist monks and violence (02 May 2013)
SL is a Sinhala Buddhist country - Buddhist clergy (26 March 2013)