Dalai Lama talks environment in Portland

Published 5:00 am Friday, May 10, 2013

PORTLAND — The Dalai Lama says he was 24 when he got began to understand pollution.

The 77-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader said in a panel discussion at the University of Portland on Thursday that his land was thought of as the “roof of the world,” clean and lightly populated.

But, The Oregonian reports, he said his outlook changed when he went to India and was told there was water he shouldn’t drink.

He said that led to his environmental education and his conviction that people, whether spiritual or not, must act to protect the Earth.

He is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the University of Oregon today and another speech Saturday in Portland.