Dalai Lama MasterChef Appearance: Australian Show Gets Special Guest (VIDEO)

The Dalai Lama just wrapped up a brief American tour, which included stops at several major media outlets. He gave interviews to the Today Show and Rolling Stone, and met with President Obama. It was, in short, a distinguished trip, befitting a Nobel Prize Laureate and the leader of a major world religion.

Apparently, when His Holiness visits Australia, he does things differently. While there, he appeared as a guest judge on on the down-under version of MasterChef. The Dalai Lama was characteristically kind to the aspiring MasterChefs, refusing to judge anything harshly. He even says, after tasting all the food, "As a buddhist monk, I have no right to prefer this food to that food. Anything I am offered, I must accept." When one presents him with a dish she'd botched in the kitchen, tears in her eyes, he takes her hand and bowed to her as a mark of forgiveness and grace.

Here's the full video:

Comments

[ritaag]

01:03 PM on 07/26/2011

And people wonder why the Tibetan resistance doesn't care about what this guy says anymore. They are fighting by themselves while we are worshipping someone who rather live the Bella Vitta in fancy and posh hotels with the elite...

[PaticaDeGato]

05:12 PM on 07/25/2011

Next stop for the DL: "Dancing with the stars".

[DanoX]

05:01 AM on 07/25/2011

I know he wants to keep the plight of Tibet in the forefront of the news by keeping himself in the media spotlight, but this is a bit much. People are dying in Tibet and starving elsewhere and he chooses to go on a show that reduces cooking to a contest with the purpose of making money. It seems a bit incongruous with Buddhist teachings.

[MeetJohnDoe]

09:53 AM on 07/25/2011

Yeah, remember the 10 Buddhist Commandments: "#5 Thou shalt not go on a cooking show!" Oh wait . . .

[DanoX]

10:58 AM on 07/25/2011

They do not call them commandments. They are called precepts; one of which is: Do not take untimely meals! A Buddhist should only eat at regular times and only for the purpose of nurishiment. The preperation and consumption of food for entertainment purposes is wasteful and will lead to thoughtless eating and laziness in the eyes of Buddhism.

[MaximusFildelis]

09:54 PM on 07/24/2011

What a lovely show. The chefs were most sincere and His Holiness a most pleasant man. All around, grace was personified.

[Jake Thomas]

07:34 PM on 07/24/2011

How can I not be cynical when presented with this tripe?
The giggling little budha is going on cooking shows?
Reality T.V, "Big Brother: Dharamshala ".
The commodification of Tibetan Budhism sounds almost Western in its mythology.
This is the worst kind of pandering.

[MeetJohnDoe]

09:52 AM on 07/25/2011

Having a Buddhist monk on a cooking show? Hunh? The worst kind of pandering? More like Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Beck. Jerry Falwell. et al.

[dutchgirl55]

11:24 AM on 07/25/2011

Giggling little Buddha...really? He has more grace than you. He is goodness and God-ness personified.

[Jake Thomas]

09:04 PM on 07/25/2011

I make no claims of divinity.

[beadingchef]

06:39 PM on 07/24/2011

Oh man, I would be so honored to cook something for the Dalai Lama, that is just too cool. It just goes to show that even food can be spiritual.

[ProudMilVet]

11:34 PM on 07/23/2011

I wish the majority of so-called Christians would learn to be as humble & compassionate.

[ColoradoCool]

05:20 AM on 07/24/2011

He's beautiful isn't he.

[ProudMilVet]

05:28 AM on 07/24/2011

ColoradoCool : Gandhi like.

[magopolis]

06:56 PM on 07/23/2011

did anyone ask if China called the master Chef to tell him not to invite him?

[Alexander Ung]

12:59 PM on 07/24/2011

DL can eat whatever he wants or call for Australia to be returned to the near exterminated Aborigines as long as he leaves China alone.

[MeetJohnDoe]

09:39 AM on 07/25/2011

Leave poor widdle powerless red China alone?

[plazma]

05:59 PM on 07/23/2011

I still like the UK version of Masterchef the best.... the US version is a j0ke.. Ramsay and Fox have destr0yed what was a good format when they brought it to America.

[iyalode5]

03:57 PM on 07/23/2011

I don't mind religion when it's like that. The right wingers could learn a thing or two about compassion from him.

[Lauren Kottwitz]

12:37 PM on 07/23/2011

There is something truly remarkable about him... and that I cannot put my finger on what "it" is, is the most humbling thing. I get the feeling, and it comes from nowhere that I know of consciously, that "it" is something far beyond my comprehension. Why that brought tears to my eyes, I do not know.

[MaximusFildelis]

09:55 PM on 07/24/2011

Me too. I shared in your tears with mine.

[MochasMom]

02:11 PM on 07/26/2011

More tears here also. I think "it" is just a recognition...deep down... of what we are truly capable of being...

[Karl Wilder]

12:28 PM on 07/23/2011

What next? Dancing with the stars?

It think this is horribly inappropriate.

[Decorina]

03:26 PM on 07/23/2011

Utterly inappropriate.

[booshh]

11:22 AM on 07/24/2011

Stupendously inappropriate.

[plazma]

05:55 PM on 07/23/2011

He agreed to do it.. its not like he was forced to come on the show

[Jake Thomas]

12:22 PM on 07/23/2011

I think the Pope would have made a better guess and there would have been winners and losers.

[ColoradoCool]

05:22 AM on 07/24/2011

The Pope is waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too pompous and full of himself to participate in something like this.

[henriette and hube]

07:35 PM on 07/24/2011

Please HP, may I fan ColoradoCool again? Best reply I've seen in months!!!!!!! Cool!

[onnozol]

12:54 PM on 07/24/2011

They couldn't fit the pope hat in the studio. And he doesn't eat in public as his frequent spillage requires a pope bib.

[Carrie Dowell McCully]

09:50 AM on 07/23/2011

Absolutely beautiful. What an intriguing man. Whoever thought to put him on a Food Show?

Maybe my producers can get me Yoda for my show Chef Hunter?
"How you get so big, eating food of this kind?" ―Yoda

[hopeglimmer]

01:33 AM on 07/23/2011

It looks like he got a warm welcome. It is good to see him treated like the special person he is.

[henriette and hube]

07:36 PM on 07/24/2011

Even though he calls himself a simple Buddhist Monk!