The Dalai Lama (second from right) listens as President Barack Obama
speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5,2015
Among those attending the annual gathering of politicians, dignitaries and faith leaders was the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. As with the Dalai Lama’s past visits to Washington, his attendance at Thursday’s breakfast drew criticism from Beijing, which sees him as an anti-Chinese separatist because of his quest for greater Tibetan autonomy.
Obama and the Dalai Lama did not have a formal meeting planned. Still, the president made note of the Dalai Lama’s presence at the breakfast, calling him a “powerful example of what it means to practice compassion.”
In a show of White House support for the Dalai Lama, he was seated at a table with Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisers.
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, talks with the Dalai Lama during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday.
The US President Barack Obama departed the prayer breakfast without appearing to have any direct interaction with the Dalai Lama
President Barack Obama condemned those who seek to use religion as a
rationale for carrying out violence around the world, declaring Thursday
that “no god condones terror.”
“We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our
religion for their nihilistic ends,” Obama said during remarks at the
National Prayer Breakfast. He singled out the Islamic State group in
Iraq and Syria, calling the militants a “death cult,” as well as those
responsible for last month’s terror attacks in Paris and deadly assault
on a school in Pakistan.Among those attending the annual gathering of politicians, dignitaries and faith leaders was the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. As with the Dalai Lama’s past visits to Washington, his attendance at Thursday’s breakfast drew criticism from Beijing, which sees him as an anti-Chinese separatist because of his quest for greater Tibetan autonomy.
Obama and the Dalai Lama did not have a formal meeting planned. Still, the president made note of the Dalai Lama’s presence at the breakfast, calling him a “powerful example of what it means to practice compassion.”
In a show of White House support for the Dalai Lama, he was seated at a table with Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisers.
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, talks with the Dalai Lama during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday.
The US President Barack Obama departed the prayer breakfast without appearing to have any direct interaction with the Dalai Lama
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