(March 31.2012) The Dalai Lama, already a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is the recipient
of the 2012 Templeton Prize, often called the most prestigious award in religion.
The announcement, made on Thursday by the Templeton Foundation, based in West Conshohocken,
Pennsylvania, cited the Tibetan leader's "incomparable global voice for universal
ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world religions." Though beloved by many
in the world for his spiritual teachings and admired for championing the cause of
Tibetan autonomy from China, the 76-year-old Buddhist leader won the Templeton honor
for his public support of the intersection of science and religion -- specifically
the "investigative traditions of science and Buddhism as a way to better understand
and advance what both disciplines might offer the world," the foundation said. The
prominent Buddhist leader has encouraged "serious scientific investigative reviews
of the power of compassion and its broad potential to address the world’s fundamental
problems -- a theme at the core of his teachings and a cornerstone of his immense
popularity," the foundation said in its announcement. Dr. John M. Templeton Jr., the
president and chairman of the John Templeton Foundation and son of the late founder
of the prize, said the Dalai Lama has "encouraged serious scientific investigative
review of the power of compassion and its potential to address fundamental problems
of the world. This search is at the core of his teachings."