So The Dalai Lama Said

There are some endorsements you just can’t say very much about:

The Dalai Lama has been an active voice opposing nuclear weapons. But after a whirlwind trip touring the tsunami-devastated northeastern patch of Japan for the first time, the religious figure said he is not absolutely against the promotion of nuclear energy.

Instead, the Dalai Lama on Monday said he is in support of using nuclear energy for peaceful means as a way to bridge the socioeconomic gap in developing countries in the absence of more efficient alternative energy sources.

A little more:

He noted that other energy sources like wind and solar are too inefficient to put into realistic practice to meet the needs of fast-developing countries.

The Dalai Lama sounds a bit like a nuclear energy advocates, though the way he advocates can be surprising:

On Monday, he urged people on both sides of the contentious nuclear argument to look at the issue “holistically.” “Just to look at it from one side then to make a decision is not right,” he said. While speaking to the benefits of nuclear energy, however, he underlined the holistic lens needed to be pointed at the issue of risk as well. Nuclear energy specialists “should take maximum sorts of preparations.”

That’s seeing life through your own particular lens, but I can’t imagine anyone disagreeing.

The Dalai Lama was born Llomo Dondrum in 1935 in China and became the 14th Dalai Lama in 1950 - in the kind of Buddhism he belongs to, the current Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of the previous one. His name within the religion is Tenzin Gyatso.

Technically, he is head of state of Tibet, but after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, he left for India, forming an exile government. Although China prefers for him not to be accepted as legitimate by foreign governments, he almost always is accepted.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his advocacy of the Tibetan state and for the rights of Tibetans.