Dalai Lama gives special discourse on 'Praise to the Intelligent One' to enlighten Tibetan youth

The Dalai Lama held a spiritual discourse on 'The Heart Sutra' and 'Praise to the Intelligent One' to enlighten Tibetan students and youths.

About three thousand young Tibetan students from the upper Tibetan Children Village (TCV) and various other schools in and around Himachal Pradesh came to attend the teachings.

The two-day teaching session by His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be about explaining the philosophy of Buddhism.

A student of TCV school, Tsewnag Norbu, expressed his gratification for the extensive teaching on Buddhism.

"We have gathered here for the teaching by His holiness on Heart Sutra especially for school and college students. I find these teaching very important because students get knowledge about Buddhism that we usually do not learn so much like from monasteries etc. ... and from these teachings we learn a lot about Buddhism," said Norbu.

The Dalai Lama expressed concern over the degeneration of interest in Buddhism among the Tibetan youth.

He expressed concern over the thinning of number of Tibetans born in exile enrolling into monasteries. He however said it was not mandatory to become a monk to study Buddhism.

Meanwhile, Dalai Lama marked the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing on Wednesday by urging China to embrace democracy and offering prayers for the protest "martyrs".