Abstract
ABSTRACTIn 1989, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who accepted the prize on behalf of his much-beleaguered Tibetan people who continue to be engaged in a nonviolent struggle for their autonomy and freedom. This article examines the Dalai Lama’s Nobel Prize speech as it demonstrates his capability as a public intellectual (along the lines of Edward Said’s delineation of the role for exiles as public intellectuals) and broadens and renews the tradition of nonviolent rhetoric practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Throughout the speech, the Dalai Lama employs a rhetoric of nonviolence forged in Buddhist principles, one that supports a rhetoric of peace that does not depend on the divisiveness of Western political rhetoric but on a recognition of common humanity and shared responsibility.