Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Dalai Lama on the Floor of the United States Senate today as the Guest Chaplain, before he offered today’s Senate invocation.
Leahy, long a champion of the Tibetan people, has visited often with the Dalai Lama and also introduced him during his address at Middlebury College on Oct. 12, 2012.
Only about a dozen senators were in the chamber when the Dalai Lama offered the opening prayer in the Senate on Thursday morning.
The chamber’s only Buddhist was Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, touched foreheads with the Dalai Lama before he began what he called his “favorite prayer.”
