The Barometer Online

Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed Dr. Robert Thurman delivers a spirited lecture to a packed Milam Auditorium Thursday night. Thurman has been credited with popularizing Tibetan Buddhism in America.

In the 1997 issue of Time Magazine, Robert Thurman was noted as one of the 26 most influential Americans and is referred to as "the Billy Graham of American Buddhism."

Last night, OSU students and faculty, as well as the general public, were invited to hear Dr. Thurman speak as the opener to this year's Hundere Religion and Culture Lecture Series, with his in-depth information and sense of humor. The lecture took place before a packed house in Milam Auditorium.

"[Thurman] has been a groundbreaker in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West and he has really opened up the doors for the religion," said James Blumenthal, associate professor of South Asian Religions and World Religions at OSU.

Thurman, the father of actress Uma Thurman, spoke about his book, "Why the Dalai Lama Matters," which came out in January of this year.

"I wrote the book because the Dalai Lama is beloved by everyone who knows him. He is very intelligent and an inspiring person," Thurman said.

Thurman's book introduces Buddhism and the Tibetan view of the Dalai Lama, and even focuses more specifically on the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. Thurman discusses the importance of what the Dalai Lama has accomplished through peace and communication between China and Tibet.

He discusses 50-year-old disputes between Tibet and China, as well as the current situations between the two countries. Thurman also proposes two five-step plans to bring peace between the China and Tibet. The proposals would be addressed to the Chinese President and the Dalai Lama,

"The war going on is one of the worst atrocities going on since the 1950s and it is really unnecessary," Thurman said. "The longer that it goes on, the more the people in China and Tibet suffer."

The first step for the Chinese President is to have Hu Jintao, the current President of the People's Republic of China, unify the whole of the Tibetan population administratively, so that the Dalai Lama would have the power to make a decision that would apply to the entire country.

Continued...

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