India is not like Tibet, we can eat a lot of vegetables: Professor Samdhong Rinpoche

From the archive record

Professor Samdhong Rinpoche narrates why he became a vegetarian. ' I began not to eat meat sometime in 1970's, there was three reason. The first was, Buddha gave a lot of demerits of eating meat, eating meat is forbidden. Secondly, India is not like Tibet. We can have a lot of vegetarian food and there is no need to eat meat. And Buddha allowed the meat which is a prepared only for a particular person', he said. Professor Samdhong Rinpoche was born in Jol, in Eastern Tibet, in 1939. At the age of five, Rinpoche was recognized, by the sublime teachers in the area, as the re-incarnation of the fourth Samdhong Rinpoche, with a formal Enthronement Ceremony held at Jol Gadhan Dhechenling Monastery. Two years later, Rinpoche took vows as a monk and started his education, learning the common sub