By Theo Emery,
Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts – Hundreds of people bearing prayer wheels, incense, flags and flowers greeted the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan head of state, as he arrived in Massachusetts Friday to pray with fellow Buddhists, meet with scientists and address devotees.
In Malden, a mostly Tibetan crowd — five deep in places — stood behind police lines to greet the bespectacled Buddhist leader as arrived to pray at the Kurukulla Center, stopping to shake hands along the way.
At a press briefing later at a Harvard Square hotel, he said he was looking forward to one of the main endeavors of his visit to Boston: a conference at MIT on Saturday discussing the intersection of Buddhism, neuroscience and human thought.
“I have been a part of these series of conversations between scientists and Buddhists, trying to engage in dialogues on many different issues of mutual interest over a number of years. And today, this time, we have the opportunity to make this conversation open, accessible to a much wider community of people,” he said.
The 68-year-old leader is viewed by Tibetan Buddhists as the 14th reincarnation of the Buddha of compassion. Living in exile since a failed 1959 uprising against the occupying Chinese army, the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
During his current five-city, 20-day U.S. tour — timed to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary — the Dalai Lama met with President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and his top aide on Tibet, Paula Dobriansky, and other top administration officials.
The meetings have irked Chinese officials, who warned the U.S. against meddling in the country’s internal affairs.
The Dalai Lama is also scheduled to meet Monday with Harvard President Lawrence Summers, and speak at the school’s Memorial Chapel.
