The Dalai Lama on Monday announced that he will donate $1.5 million in prize money being awards to him to charity.
The prize money is being awarded to the Dalai Lama as part of the annual Templeton Prize in London. The award is given for exception contributions to “affirming life’s spiritual dimension.”
According to Tibet’s spiritual leader he will donated just over $1.3 million to Save the Children in India while the remaining award will be put aside for The Minds and Life Institute and for the purpose of educating Tibetan monks about science.
Marking the occasion will be special services which are being held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London at 13:30 and 16:00 BST.
Save the Children chief executive Justin Forsyth says the donation will go a long way in India where $150 can train a health more and another $150 can employ them for a full year.
Speaking of the groups decision to award the Dalai Lama the prize money foundation president Dr. John Templeton noted:
“With an increasing reliance on technological advances to solve the world’s problems, humanity also seeks the reassurance that only a spiritual quest can answer … The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centres on every single human being.”
The Dalai Lama is no stranger to international awards, in 1989 he won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Another former award recipients of the Templeton Prize in the last 20 years was Mother Teresa.
In speaking of the award the Dalai Lama said on Monday that British people should not feel “hopeless” and “helpless” in the face of economic troubles.
It has been a strange week for the Dalai Lama after he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he believed Chinese agents were training Tibetan women to assassinate him by putting poison in their hair, which he would then touch during blessings.