logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2020
26m 57s

The Dalai Lama

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

This year, the Dalai Lama celebrated his 85th Birthday. He is one of the world's most prominent religious leaders and is certainly the most famous Buddhist but talk is now turning to who will replace him. In 1959, His Holiness was forced to leave Tibet and since then he has been living in Dharamsala in northern India. In exile, he has become so much more than just the Tibetan spiritual leader but what do we really know about him and what will his legacy be?

Discussing the 14th Dalai Lama with Ernie Rea will be Kate Saunders (a writer and independent specialist on Tibet), Professor Robbie Barnett (Former Director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University and now a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS). the Venerable Lama Losang Samten (Spiritual Director of the Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Centre of Philadelphia and personal attendant to the Dalai Lama in the 1980s) and Andrew Quintman (Associate Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University who specializes in the Buddhist traditions of Tibet).

Producer: Helen Lee Editor: Amanda Hancox

Up next
Apr 22
Cultural Religiosity
Giles Fraser meets columnist Giles Coren, who was raised in the Jewish tradition, became an atheist and who now feels at home in a Christian church, to explore what it means to be culturally religious.Is cultural religiosity an oxymoron and totally untenable? Is it on the rise or ... Show More
27m 29s
Apr 15
Claiming Christianity
Giles Fraser meets the Revd Canon Fr Phil Harris, of the Anglican Church in North America, to discuss defending Britain’s Christian heritage.Christianity has been deployed as a tool by those who have been labelled as far-right by their opponents, or by people supporting far-right ... Show More
27m 14s
Apr 8
Faithful Food
We hear from the volunteers serving an average of 1,500 meals a day at the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha in Hounslow and explore the significance of langar in the Sikh and wider community. Mona Siddiqui and the panel explore the role food plays in religion. Do all religious trad ... Show More
27m 20s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2017
Robert Thurman- Buddhism and the Dalai Lama
Robert Thurman is the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism and he has recently written a book called Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dali Lama of Tibet. Whether you embrace the teachings of Buddhism or not, this episode will educate you on powerful approach ... Show More
30m 28s
May 2015
Lama Surya Das
This week we talk to Lama Surya Das about looking beyond ourselves Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars, one of the main interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, and a leading spokesperson for the emerging American Buddhism. ... Show More
33m 37s
Sep 2011
David McMahan, “The Making of Buddhist Modernism” (Oxford UP, 2008)
For many Asian and Western Buddhists today, Buddhism means meditation and an embrace of the world’s interdependence. But that’s not what it meant to Buddhists in the past; most of them never meditated and often saw interdependence (or dependent origination) as something fearful t ... Show More
58 m
Nov 2021
Ruth Gamble, "The Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje: Master of Mahamudra" (Shambala, 2020)
A scholarly yet accessible biography of the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, one of the great historical figures of Tibetan Buddhism. Known for his mastery of teachings across sectarian lines, his treatises on medicine and astrology, and his work as spiritual advisor to the last Yua ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2023
Awakening the Body (with Willa Baker)
Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Willa Blythe Baker, a writer, translator, and teacher of meditation based on Himalayan Buddhist tradition. We talk about Willa’s early discovery of Buddhism with her mother, her time living as a nun, and our shared experience in graduate school a ... Show More
1 h
Jan 2023
The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness - Part 1 - with Dan Harris
Tara shares a podcast from Dan Harris: The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness - Part 1 - Dan Harris (host of Ten Percent Happier) flies to Dharamsala, India to spend two weeks in the orbit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is the first installment of a five-part audio documentary ... Show More
5m 12s
Feb 2024
Heart and Soul: Religion in the 21st century - Buddhism (episode 3)
What does it mean to be a Buddhist today? For this last programme in a special series on religion in the 21st century, Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service brings together three global Buddhists from Singapore, the USA and the UK. Venerable Canda Theri Bhikkhuni is the only fu ... Show More
27m 24s
Feb 2022
Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman — Love Your Enemies? (Really?)
It’s a piece of deep psychological acuity, carried in many religious traditions: that each of us is defined as much by who our enemies are and how we treat them as by whom and what we love. In this episode, two legendary Buddhist teachers shine a light on the lofty ideal of lovin ... Show More
50m 40s
Mar 2002
The Buddha
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and teachings of The Buddha. Two and a half thousand years ago a young man meditated on life and death and found enlightenment. In that moment he saw his past lives spread out before him and he realised that all life, indeed the very fabri ... Show More
28m 5s