The Dalai Lama has appealed for future generations to show more compassion and resist materialism. In a speech before Europe's human rights authority, he also urged the EU to pressure China on its Tibet policy.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/P. Hertzog
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The Tibetan spiritual leader expressed a bleak view of the 21st century when he addressed the Council of Europe in the southern French city of Strasbourg on Thursday.
"I'm 81 years old. I'm not expecting a happier humanity within my lifetime," the Dalai Lama told the gathering of diplomats and human rights representatives.
The Dalai Lama blamed the state of the education system, which he said encouraged a materialistic lifestyle.
"We need education about moral principles and moral ethics that aren't based on religion, but on scientific knowledge, common experience and common sense," he said, adding that such a system would help create more compassion in future generations.
He said he feared that the current focus on materialism would make the 21st century "one of violence."
The Tibet question
Later Thursday, the Dalai Lama attended a meeting with the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, where he urged EU leaders to offer more "constructive criticism" to China on its governance of Tibet.
The remote, mainly Buddhist territory is governed as an autonomous region of China, but Tibetans complain that their culture, language and Buddhist traditions have been suppressed amid an increasing influx of Han Chinese.
"The Chinese must finally understand that this problem needs to be addressed in a rational way - because it's not going to just disappear," the Dalai Lama said.
He insists he only wants greater autonomy for Tibet under the central Chinese government, but Beijing sees the exiled spiritual leader as a separatist threat.
The Dalai Lama has been living in India since a 1959 failed uprising against Chinese control in Tibet. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and is seen worldwide as an advocate for minority rights.
nm / mkg (AFP, kna, dpa, epd)
The Dalai Lama: The great communicator
The Dalai Lama is currently in the German city of Frankfurt. For decades, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people has been relentlessly campaigning for the rights of the oppressed.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A tireless traveler
The Dalai Lama is a tireless traveler who maintains good relations with the international community. The spiritual leader does not have much power, but he uses his close ties to politicians, celebrities and leaders for the cause of Tibetan autonomy. But meeting with the Dalai Lama can be tricky for world leaders because of the likelihood of straining relations with China.
Image: Reuters
Beijing not amused
The Dalai Lama's reception in 2007, hosted by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was much resented by the Chinese government and was even criticized by some German politicians. In May 2008, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek –Zeul informally met the Dalai Lama outside his official residence shortly after the riots in Lhasa.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Cracking jokes
The Tibetan leader's sense of humor is as legendary as his laughter. Here, the Dalai Lama is seen conversing with the Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu, at a conference in Seattle in 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
No fear of contact
During his years as premier of the German state of Hesse, conservative politician Roland Koch was notorious for his tough anti-immigration stance. But this did not hinder his close friendship with the Dalai Lama, whom he invited several times. In this 2009 picture, Koch greets the Dalai Lama near Frankfurt with traditional warmth.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Friend and teacher
Here, during a 2005 gala event at the Kurhaus Wiesbaden, the Dalai Lama accompanies his longest-standing friend Heinrich Harrer off the stage. The Austrian mountaineer got to know the Dalai Lama in Lhasa in 1946 after having escaped from a British internment camp in India. Harrer later became the Dalai Lama's teacher. He died in Carinthia, Austria, aged 94.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Sarkozy says "Non"
France's former "première dame" Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama met at the inauguration of a Buddhist temple in southern France. But much to the regret of human rights activists, then French President Nicolas Sarkozy didn't receive the Dalai Lama during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Deceptive closeness
China's attempt to involve the Dalai Lama in the "liberation" of Tibet failed. Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong is shown here in Beijing as the "protector" of the two highest Tibetan dignitaries, the Dalai (R) and the Panchen Lama. The picture was taken in 1956, three years before the Dalai Lama fled to India.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
Diplomatic symbolism
At the beginning of 2014, US President Obama invited the Dalai Lama to a "private meeting" at the White House. Although the talks didn't take place in the Oval Office – which is usually used to host foreign dignitaries – it was the third meeting between the two men. Beijing warned that it would regard the meeting as a "gross interference in China's internal affairs."
