California, USA (CU)_ The University of California, Merced, has honored the spiritual head of Tibet His Holiness the Dalai Lama with the “Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy, and Tolerance”, thereby making the Tibetan leader as its fifteenth winner. According to Sherrie Spendlove, who found the award at the university, “In our increasingly politically-divided and highly confrontational world, the messages of kindness, peace, compassion and forgiveness of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama are helpful, not only in advancing sustainable social justice using non-violent methods, but also as a path to better interpersonal relations and a more meaningful life.”
The Award was established in 2005 and is being presented in the name of the founder’s parents, Alice and Clifford Spendlove, to recognize a role model and a motivational character for UC Merced students, staff, and the community. The recipient receives a $15,000 cash reward. Professor Nigel Hatton at the Department of Literatures, Languages and Cultures expressed pride over presenting the award to The Dalai Lama. He said, “Choosing His Holiness as the latest recipient of the Spendlove Prize, UC Merced recognizes a global spiritual leader committed to expressing the importance of happiness, compassion, warm-heartedness, self-discipline, friendship and human solidarity amongst our diversity.”
Dalai Lama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has been a staunch champion for peace and compassion. In honor of this year’s International Peace Day, he released a statement saying, “The sale of weapons, thousands and thousands of types of arms and ammunition by manufacturers in big countries, fuels the violence, but more dangerous than guns or bombs are hatred, lack of compassion, and lack of respect for the rights of others. External peace is impossible without inner peace. As long as hatred dwells in the human mind, real peace is impossible.”
The honorable past recipients of the prestigious award are Harvard professor Charles Ogletree, Jr.; 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner poet Peter Balakian; 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rigoberta Mench Tum; human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad; and civil rights activist and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, Alicia Garza. The Dalai Lama was formally awarded the Spendlove Prize this month. A pre-recorded presentation will be played at the institution later to honor this year’s awardee.
