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We have to change the way people think about animals. I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesn't cause suffering.|Dalai Lama<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.universalcompassion.org/ |title = Universal Compassion Movement |publisher = Universalcompassion.org |date = 25 November 2010 |access-date = 17 July 2013 |archive-date = 26 August 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130826175834/http://www.universalcompassion.org/ |url-status = live }}</ref>}} The Dalai Lama advocates compassion for animals and frequently urges people to try [[vegetarianism]] or at least reduce their consumption of meat. In Tibet, where historically meat was the most common food, most monks historically have been [[omnivore]]s, including the Dalai Lamas. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama was raised in a meat-eating family but converted to vegetarianism after arriving in India, where vegetables are much more easily available and vegetarianism is widespread.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Food Science, An Ecological Approach|last=Edelstein|first=Sari|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Publishers|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4496-0344-1}}</ref> He spent many years as a vegetarian, but after contracting [[hepatitis]] in India and suffering from weakness, his doctors told him to return to eating meat which he now does twice a week.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kristof|first=Nicholas|title=Dalai Lama Gets Mischievous|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/opinion/nicholas-kristof-dalai-lama-gets-mischievous.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=16 July 2015|access-date=22 August 2019|archive-date=22 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822111340/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/opinion/nicholas-kristof-dalai-lama-gets-mischievous.html|url-status=live}}</ref> This attracted public attention when, during a visit to the White House, he was offered a vegetarian menu but declined by replying, as he is known to do on occasion when dining in the company of non-vegetarians, "I'm a Tibetan monk, not a vegetarian".<ref>{{cite book |last=Iyer |first=Pico |title=The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama |publisher=Knopf Publishing Group |date=2008 |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ExP5VoHTyzgC&pg=PP1 |isbn=978-1-4088-0692-0 |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204609/https://books.google.com/books?id=ExP5VoHTyzgC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}</ref> His own home kitchen, however, is completely vegetarian.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.shabkar.org/teachers/tibetanbuddhism/dalai_lama.htm |title = H.H. Dalai Lama |publisher = Shabkar.org |access-date = 17 July 2013 |archive-date = 5 January 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210105230628/http://www.shabkar.org/teachers/tibetanbuddhism/dalai_lama.htm |url-status = live }}</ref> In 2009, the English singer [[Paul McCartney]] wrote a letter to the Dalai Lama inquiring why he was not a vegetarian. As McCartney later told ''[[The Guardian]]'', "He wrote back very kindly, saying, 'my doctors tell me that I must eat meat'. And I wrote back again, saying, you know, I don't think that's right. [...] I think now he's vegetarian most of the time. I think he's now being told, the more he meets doctors from the west, that he can get his protein somewhere else. [...] It just doesn't seem right – the Dalai Lama, on the one hand, saying, 'Hey guys, don't harm sentient beings... Oh, and by the way, I'm having a steak.{{'"}}<ref>{{cite news|last=Ellen|first=Barbara|date=17 July 2010|title=Interview: Paul McCartney|work=The Guardian|location=London|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/18/paul-mccartney-vegetarianism|url-status=live|access-date=22 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130915150250/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/18/paul-mccartney-vegetarianism|archive-date=15 September 2013}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page