Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibet independence movement and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, visited Peace Memorial Park, paid his respects at the memorial cenotaph and visited the Peace Memorial Museum on March 30.
Shortly after 9 a.m. the Dalai Lama and the group of 15 people who accompanied him, including several Buddhist priests, arrived at Peace Memorial Park. He offered a white cloth typical of those used for prayers in Tibetan Buddhism at the cenotaph, and recited a sutra with his hands joined in prayer. Afterwards he visited the museum. The Dalai Lama looked at photographs of Hiroshima directly after the bombing as well as a charred lunchbox and other items on display and listened intently to the explanation by a member of the museum staff.
After visiting the museum, he released a statement through Kurozumikyo, the religious group that had invited him: “I was shocked by the unimaginably destructive power of the atomic bomb, and renewed my resolve to abolish nuclear weapons. We must rid ourselves of anger and hatred and work toward a nuclear-free world.”
This was the Dalai Lama’s second visit to Peace Memorial Park. The first was in November 1980 when he came to Japan to attend the All Japan Buddhist Conference. On this occasion he was invited by Kurozumikyo, which is headquartered in Okayama, and arrived in Hiroshima on March 29 from India where he lives in exile. The afternoon of the following day he went to Okayama where he will give a lecture at Kurozumikyo headquarters. He will visit Kanazawa and Tokyo before leaving Japan on April 6.