Renewing an Old Friendship with the 14th Dalai Lama, I Renew My Resolve to Achieve a World without Leprosy
Published on January 13, 2026
Happy New Year!
All of us at The Nippon Foundation wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026.
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A private audience with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala,
northern India, on November 28, 2025.
I was received by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, at his headquarters in Dharamsala, northern India, on November 28, 2025.
At our first meeting in 11 years, he looked over some photographs I had brought with me as we warmly and peacefully renewed our old friendship.
Some of the photos were taken in March 2014 when the Dalai Lama accompanied me to one of India’s approximately 750 leprosy colonies. His message there was unequivocal: "People should not look down on others. It is totally wrong. Discrimination is a sin.”
His Holiness was moved by his visit to the colony and surprised me by offering to use his own book royalties to support young people living in the colonies to pursue higher education. The Nippon Foundation matched his contribution, and the Sasakawa–India Leprosy Foundation (S-ILF) joined as an administrative partner to implement the Dalai Lama–Sasakawa Scholarship in 2015.
To date, approximately 260 students have received support through this program to study for a degree in fields such as law, pharmacy, computer science, or hospitality. Many of the graduates have secured well-paying, socially respected jobs that have transformed their family circumstances.
They have become role models in their communities.
I had heard that the Dalai Lama had undergone knee replacement surgery about a year ago in the United States, and so I was concerned about his health. However, he appeared as compassionate and serene as ever.
Considering our respective advanced ages－he is 90 and I was 86 at the time－this meeting was particularly special.
It served as an opportunity to engrave in my heart once again my resolve to continue dedicating my full efforts to achieving a world free from leprosy and its associated stigma and discrimination.
The Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been living in exile in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala since fleeing Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959.
In Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai Lamas are believed to be the physical manifestation of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet.
