I have cooked for him and other high lamas and Rinpoches and have served them eggs and stews with small amounts of meat. Most Tibetan Lamas are not vegetarian as they are from Tibet where nearly everyone depended on yak for food, clothing and shelter. Few crops (like some grains) can grow in the Himalayas.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama eats meat once a week for his health. He gives a perfect explanation. He says you should not eat meat, but if you must, you can eat a little, not tons.
His Holiness's kitchen in Dharamsala is vegetarian. However, during visits outside of Dharamsala, His Holiness is not necessarily vegetarian. Following strict vinaya rules, His Holiness does not have dinner.
Another fascinating fact about the Buddhist leader is that he still loves to eat noodles and momos. From Thukpa to Shapale, several dishes are prepared for the Dalai Lama during his meals.
Those who cannot fulfil their oaths to the divine can make up for it by sponsoring a vegetarian meal for other people. Chinese Buddhist monastics and the more devout lay Buddhists practise a permanent form of abstinence by becoming vegetarian or vegan.
According to the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, a Mahayana sutra giving Gautama Buddha's final teachings, the Buddha insisted that his followers should not eat any kind of meat or fish.
Theravada and Mahayana: often do not eat meat and fish, some are vegan. Theravada and Mahayana from China and Vietnam: do not eat garlic, onion, chives, shallot or leek (five pungent spices – believed to increase one's sexual desire and anger) Tibetans: never eat fish, usually will not eat foul.
Tsampa is a type of flour made from ground, roasted barley. It's eaten in dozens of ways as part of the Tibetan diet, including, as the Dalai Lama does, at breakfast, which he has at 5.30am.
Bedtime – the monks went to bed at 8pm in the winter and 9pm in the summer. They had to sleep in dormitories of 10 or 20. They slept fully clothed except that they had to remove their knives in case they cut themselves when they were asleep.
Most modern Buddhists are less strict concerning intoxicants, and although coffee has a mild effect on the brain, social and daily consumption is generally accepted.
While the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is reportedly still in good health, he is now 85 and questions over his succession are growing, along with fears that his death could spark a religious crisis in Asia.
He doesn't eat dinner
That's because, according to monastic texts, Buddhist monks and nuns are prohibited from eating solid food after midday. Although it's a controversial view amongs Buddhist practitioners in many ways and for many reasons, it's one that the Dalai Lama certainly adheres to.
There are many reasons people choose to eat plant-based diets full-time. The common perception in the Vietnamese community is vegan for spiritual and religious reasons. In the last 10 years with the growth of social media and the information age, the reasons to enjoy plant-centered diets have become more apparent.
After years of scattered protests, a full-scale revolt broke out in March 1959, and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee as the uprising was crushed by Chinese troops. On March 31, 1959, he began a permanent exile in India, settling at Dharamsala, where he established a democratically based shadow Tibetan government.
The vegetarians say that ahimsa, or the yogic practice of nonviolence, prevents them from eating animals because it's violent to take the life of another living being. Vegetarians also say that meat-eating inhibits us from achieving deep states of meditation because it negatively affects the energy body.
Restrictive diet
Traditionally, those alms are calorie-rich foods, either processed or homemade – with the Buddhist faithful wanting to offer something of high value and taste. The monks are also forbidden from eating anything after 12 p.m., having only one or two meals a day between the hours of 6 a.m. and noon.
So having one meal a day is not a diet, but rather an approach, to get back to nature, and understand our bodies better. By breaking this conditioning of having 3 meals a day, we become more capable of keeping the body happy. A happy body is a happy mind, and the only means to longevity.
Guidelines for Yogic Nutrition
There is a saying among yogis, 'eat as [little] as possible, eat as good as possible. ' For [a] yogi (who does the daily spiritual practice of sadhana), they would typically eat just one or two meals a day. For anyone else, it is solely about what your body requires,” she says.
Buddhism, the Thai state religion, teaches that use of intoxicants should be avoided.
In the olden days, they were forbidden amongst the Buddhist community because these vegetables can cause irritation and intestinal gas, which lessen one's ability to concentrate or meditate.
Some traditions even go so far as to protect the seed of life in plants and vegetation. These very strict dietary rules prevent Buddhists from consuming root vegetables like potatoes, onions, carrots, ginger and garlic.
It has been gleaned from the many available historical documents that da Vinci was a vegetarian who respected and loved animals, and that he suffered from right hemiparesis in the last 5 years of his life. A vegetarian diet has both positive and negative influences on the cerebrovascular system.
Gandhiji was a strict vegetarian both by custom as well as by choice. He classified foods into three broad diets – vegetarian, mixed and flesh foods. He not only practised but also professed vegetarianism.
Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John the Baptist, James the Just and Jesus were vegetarians. Some religious orders of various Christian Churches practice pescatarianism, including the Benedictines, Franciscans, Trappists, Carthusians and Cistercians.