Dalai Lama Donates $1.5M to Charity

It's a big news day for the Dalai Lama, from the dangerous to the charitable. He will today be awarded $1.5 million for his services to human spirituality, and he's giving away all of the winnings. He'll donate some $1.45 million to India's Save the Children and more than $200,000 to the Minds and Life Institute, which blends scientific investigation and "contemplative tradition." Some of the funds from the Templeton Prize will also support Tibetan monks' scientific education, the BBC reports. The Tibetan spiritual leader received the prize for backing "serious scientific investigative reviews of the power of compassion."

"With an increasing reliance on technological advances to solve the world's problems, humanity also seeks the reassurance that only a spiritual quest can answer," said the president of the foundation behind the prize, whose first winner, in 1973, was Mother Teresa. "The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centers on every single human being." (More Dalai Lama stories.)