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Crowds gather in Central Park's East Meadow to hear the Dalai Lama speak, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2003, in New York. The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader was in New York for the last stop of a five-city tour. Photo by Joan K. Rosen Click for more photos

Slouched in a patio chair wearing a beach-bum cap and a stylish windbreaker, the software engineer rubbed his eyes and tried to shake off his hangover. The sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky and it was already well past 1 p.m., but the 33-year-old Beijing native had just ordered breakfast.

The Dalai Lama greets the crowd as he arrives to conduct a free lecture in New York's Central Park, Sunday Sept. 21, 2003. The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader was in New York for the last stop of a five-city tour. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Tens of thousands of people flooded into New York's Central Park for a free public lecture by Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The lecture, one of the highlights of the Dalai Lama's ongoing US tour, had all the trappings of an open-air rock concert

The Dalai Lama gestures while responding to questions during a news interview Sunday Sept. 21, 2003 in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

The Dalai Lama called war "legalized violence" and said Sunday he wished he had visited Iraq and pushed for a better dialogue between countries before the war started in an effort to avert it.

Giant TV screens helped the Dalai Lama convey his message of peace to the Central Park audience. (Barbara Alper for The New York Times)

President Johannes Rau surprised observers with a forthright speech in which he demanded that the Chinese government show respect for human rights. Actually Rau spoke of ordinary matters - it was the surprise of the public that was significant: in China

Unexpectedly, the President of Germany Johannes Rau has openly reproved the Chinese government to respect human rights. In a speech in front of 1000 students of the University of Nanjing, Rau said that criticism of violations of human rights

The Dalai Lama last week at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology symposium on consciousness and the mind. (Michael Dwyer/AP)