The Dalai Lama Loves Him Some Veal

Published on Thursday, May 17, 2007, by Christy Harrison / Edit Post

For non Lama-watchers, it may come as a surprise that His Holiness isn’t vegetarian, as many Buddhists are. Turns out he’s a big meat-lover. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, at a recent luncheon the Dalai Lama “chowed down” on a locally raised veal roast prepared by Beard Award–winning Wisconsin chef Sandy D’Amato. He “lapped up” everything else as well—a five-course menu that included a cured fish appetizer, an asparagus soup with a chicken stock base, a stuffed pheasant breast, a mixed green salad, an eggplant-and-chickpea entrée, and three chocolate desserts. It’s unclear from the article whether all of those plates were actually served to the monk (three full-size chocolate desserts?!), but one thing is for sure: “He ate nine pieces of bread,” D’Amato says.

What gives with all the meat-eating? Turns out the Dalai Lama tried strict vegetarianism for a year and a half in the 1960s and developed hepatitis, at which point his doctors advised him to go back to his omnivorous ways. (He’s been criticized by some in the vegetarian community for having been an unhealthy vegetarian, possibly damaging his liver that way—he subsisted on a high-fat diet of mostly nuts and milk—and thus the medical necessity of his meat-eating has been questioned.)

But in addition to the unexpected carnivorous streak, Mr. Lama seems like more of a chowhound than your average ascetic monk; is it because his one-to-two-meal-a-day diet leaves him ravenous? Or perhaps he’s following an especially strict-seeming Buddhist law under which monks and nuns are prohibited from cultivating, storing, or cooking their own food:

[I]nstead, they must rely on ‘alms,’ which are donations from believers. This sometimes includes meats, as monks and nuns aren’t allowed to ask for specific foods.

I wonder if this aspect of the religion makes it attractive to freegans.

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  • Husband and I went vegetarian for the factory farm issues, but both not only stuck with it but went to vegan eating (no animal products) because of the wealth of flavorful, colorful foods we discovered that we never before ate (amaranth, flax, beans, rices, herbs, buckwheat, quinoa, alternative pastas from such grains, coconut, nut "cream," not to mention more vegs & fruits) that we wound up...+READ

    Husband and I went vegetarian for the factory farm issues, but both not only stuck with it but went to vegan eating (no animal products) because of the wealth of flavorful, colorful foods we discovered that we never before ate (amaranth, flax, beans, rices, herbs, buckwheat, quinoa, alternative pastas from such grains, coconut, nut "cream," not to mention more vegs & fruits) that we wound up loving and the unexpected super health benefits. Yes, we expected some health benefits, but for example, he finally lost his stubborn waistside pounds and I stopped having asthma episodes and joint aches (arthritis and diabetes runs rampant in my family). Another commenter brought up a good point..."going vegetarian" and eating just a few foods, such as white rice and easy/no-prep package snacks, as many who say they tried going veg eat, is not going to improve health, not to mention makes for a bland diet. (Though so sad that the Dalai Lama would eat calves, or factory farmed animals!) We have so many dishes, most very simple and made in our steamer, for which carnes request the recipes!-COLLAPSE

  • I always thought the Dalai Lama was a pretty cool guy until I found out that he's a meatie. I read somewhere that his reasoning is that he personally doesn't take the life of an animal so it's okay to eat meat. I guess that makes you innocent if you hire a hitman to kill someone. And he likes veal? Male calves, considered a "by product" of the milk industry, taken from their mothers shortly after...+READ

    I always thought the Dalai Lama was a pretty cool guy until I found out that he's a meatie. I read somewhere that his reasoning is that he personally doesn't take the life of an animal so it's okay to eat meat. I guess that makes you innocent if you hire a hitman to kill someone. And he likes veal? Male calves, considered a "by product" of the milk industry, taken from their mothers shortly after birth, kept confined and alone in a bare stall to prevent them moving so their muscles atrophy making their meat tender, and fed an iron deficient diet to make the veal fashionably pale, until they're slaughtered while still little more than babies and then, to add insult to injury, eaten by a spiritual leader. Not cool at all - his popularity rating just took a major dive in my opinion. Where's Ghandi when we need a real hero to look up to?-COLLAPSE

  • Cetude, meat should be discouraged in people who have contracted viral hepatitis. But not all hepatitis is viral. It simply means an inflammation of the liver. This can happen from diet as well. If you have change your diet and get hepatitis (non-viral) then it makes sense to go back to what you were doing, even if that means eating meat. I know because I've tried to be vegetarian four times over...+READ

    Cetude, meat should be discouraged in people who have contracted viral hepatitis. But not all hepatitis is viral. It simply means an inflammation of the liver. This can happen from diet as well. If you have change your diet and get hepatitis (non-viral) then it makes sense to go back to what you were doing, even if that means eating meat. I know because I've tried to be vegetarian four times over the past decade and each time my liver enzymes went out of the normal range. Each time, after months of hoping they would go back, eating meat was the only solution.

    Also, Buddha was not vegetarian even though he preferred it he would eat meat when served meat. The Dalai Lama has spoken much about his positions on meat. He wrote against KFC in Tibet and explained why, including traditional eating of meat. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3836927.stm-COLLAPSE

  • Meat should be discouraged with Hepatitis because Meat often has chemicals, hormones and antibiotic resistant infections highly contagious to human-MRSA and VRE was found in raw meat which just handling it can get the person touching it infected through the tiniest micro crack in the skin. It is also true that pork products were found to have HEPATITIS E which is highly contagious to humans....+READ

    Meat should be discouraged with Hepatitis because Meat often has chemicals, hormones and antibiotic resistant infections highly contagious to human-MRSA and VRE was found in raw meat which just handling it can get the person touching it infected through the tiniest micro crack in the skin. It is also true that pork products were found to have HEPATITIS E which is highly contagious to humans. Hepatitis does NOT cook out - the virus has a hard shell requiring autoclaving for 20 minutes (complete sterilization) so ordinary cooking won't kill Hep E. The Dalai Lama is a liar so he can chow down on his raw meat. God what an animal.-COLLAPSE

  • In Tibet, where the Dalai Lama is originally from, they eat a lot of meat because there is not much else to eat. Also, as a monk, he isn't supposed to turn down alms offerred to him by others. He isn't supposed to have attachment to material things, including food, and being choosy about his food would indicate that.

    Not all Buddhists are veggie anyway. Amongst many Buddhist communities,...+READ

    In Tibet, where the Dalai Lama is originally from, they eat a lot of meat because there is not much else to eat. Also, as a monk, he isn't supposed to turn down alms offerred to him by others. He isn't supposed to have attachment to material things, including food, and being choosy about his food would indicate that.

    Not all Buddhists are veggie anyway. Amongst many Buddhist communities, Buddhists can eat meat as long as they have not ordered it, which might cause an animal to be slaughtered to meat the order or slaughtered it themselves. In other words, if the animal was already dead, they can eat it as the action that they are performing is eating rather than killing. Buddhists who are vegetarian general focus on the fact that it is more compassionate not to eat meat, even if you yourself don't actually kill an animal to get the meat.

    Incidentally, I am both Buddhist and veggie!-COLLAPSE