The Buddhist do not strictly forbid meat. It has not been until recently that Buddhist began to become vegetarian. The reason for the transition is the influence of the Dalai Lama.
When the Dalai Lama was 13 or 14 years, he had requested that the major festivals in Lhasa, the large gathering become vegetarian. Currently, even if it considers that each individual must decide to be vegetarian or not, the Dalai Lama asks that during lessons, rallies and celebrations of the Buddhist centers, food is exclusively vegetarian, so that it corresponds to the ideal and Buddhist do not live to cause the suffering of other beings. The Dalai Lama was completely vegetarian in 1965 for 20 months, after which he contracted hepatitis and Tibetan doctors as well as western doctors advised him to take a non-vegetarian diet. However, he has been trying to eat as little meat as possible.
The 17th Karmapa in 2007 also gave instructions on the benefits of abstinence from meat so as not to cause the animals to suffer. Following this advice, Tibetans have changed their eating habits and become vegetarian, and Tibet Autonomous Region and in the Kham and Amdo, vegetarian restaurants began to open.
According to Olga Kahler, wife of the President of the International Vegetarian Union, the Dalai Lama has become a vegetarian. With his arrival in India in 1959 he expressed his gratitude to the people of India for having hosted the 60,000 Tibetan refugees. However, in his book “Off the freedom,” the Dalai Lama says he decided to become a vegetarian after attending the death of a slaughtered chicken. It also states that his regime was a strict vegetarian diet, excluding the consumption of meat and eggs.
In an interview with a journalist from Reader’s Digest published in 2004, the Dalai Lama speaks in these terms his experience of vegetarianism: “In the early 1960s, I became a vegetarian, and stayed strictly vegetarian for almost two years. But I contracted hepatitis and I went back to my old regime. For a time, was a vegetarian one day, not a vegetarian the next day.”
In 1967, the Dalai Lama was invited to deliver the keynote address of the 19th International Vegetarian Congress held in New Delhi in India. There he was advocating vegetarianism, stating that there was so much meat alternatives that it was not necessary to slaughter animals for human consumption. In a public speech in Seattle in 1995, the Dalai Lama said he would have tried to be vegetarian at all times, but he found it was too difficult. He then added that he ate meat on alternate days, and dividing that consumption of meat by two, he tried to influence his followers to a smooth transition to vegetarianism.
Today, the cuisine of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala is totally vegetarian. However, when traveling away from Dharamsala, he is not necessarily vegetarian. So in 2007 in Madison, when the Dalai Lama presided over a dinner to raise funds for the Deer Park Buddhist Center and Monastery. The journalists reported that the dinner served stuffed pheasant breast, roast veal, asparagus soup with chicken which the Dalai Lama ate.
Former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney has written to the Dalai Lama for him to be totally vegetarian because it contradicted his statement that the Buddhists’ believe in the idea of not inflicting suffering to sentient beings.” The Dalai Lama replied that the doctors, he needed to eat meat for his health.
In June 2004, the Dalai Lama was opposed to opening a restaurant in a chain of fast food on his homeland of Tibet on the grounds that the massive animal slaughter by the chain violated the Tibetan values. The letter sent by the Dalai Lama was released by the association PETA. In July 2004, the chain abandoned its project.
While Traditional Buddhism does not teach vegetarianism the new head of Tibetan Buddhism has lead the cal for change. Many other Buddhist are following the example. The Dalai Lama himself is not a strict vegetarian but would be if his health allowed it. The Dalai Lama also supports just limiting the ones meat consumption and views vegetarianism as a choice not a Buddhist doctrine or commandment.
Works Cited:
http://www2.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=605615&format;=print
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/mccartneys%20meat%20row%20with%20dalai%20lama_1089529
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3836927.stm
Tsering Shakya. (1999). The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet since 1947, pp. 7-8. Columbia University Press, New York.
Vijay Kranti, “The Dalai Lama and Chinese Desperation”, Border Affairs, 2001.
