c. 2008 Religion News Service

UpDATE: Dalai Lama is in good health

(RNS) The Dalai Lama is in good health, said doctors in Mumbai, India, according to the exiled Tibetan leader’s office.

“The doctors attending on him have given assurances that there is absolutely no cause for concern,” the Dalai Lama’s office said in a statement Friday (Aug. 29). “All that he needs is a good rest.”

From Mumbai on Saturday, the Dalai Lama will join in a 12-hour fast for peace and freedom organized by the Tibetan Solidarity Committee in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, his office said.

Earlier this week, the 73-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate canceled plans to travel to Mexico and the Dominican Republic because he was suffering from exhaustion.

The Dalai Lama is revered by Tibetans as a spiritual and temporal leader, but vilified as a “splittist” by Chinese authorities, who consider the Himalayan highlands part of China.

Tensions between Tibet and China have run high since Tibetans violently protested Chinese rule in March. Chinese officials accuse the Dalai Lama, who publicly espouses non-violence, of stoking the protests.

The Dalai Lama keeps an active, itinerant schedule, speaking before international audiences about Buddhism and Tibet.

_ Daniel Burke

Danny Glover seeks prayers for Louisiana

DENVER (RNS) Actor Danny Glover spoke to Louisiana’s Democratic National Convention delegates Thursday (Aug. 29), leading them in a prayer that New Orleans be spared from Tropical Storm Gustav’s fury.

“The people in Louisiana have already been through enough,” Glover said as he asked everyone to join him in a silent prayer.

Glover has been a regular New Orleans visitor since Hurricane Katrina, and has supported new school initiatives and help for artists displaced by that storm.

He also produced a documentary, “Trouble the Water,” that follows a New Orleans couple through Katrina and its aftermath, depicting their struggle to survive and get help when the levees broke and flooded their community.

_ Bruce Alpert

Israel authorities begin digital conservation of Dead Sea Scrolls

JERUSALEM (RNS) Sixty years after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Israeli authorities have begun the process of conserving the precious pieces of ancient parchment through digital technology.

Israeli archaeologists said the project, now in its pilot stage, will employ the latest digital camera technology to image the thousands of fragments discovered in the late 1940s. The goal is to better preserve the brittle 2,000-year-old parchments and create an Internet databank accessible to everyone.

Buried deep inside caves in the blisteringly hot, dry Judean Desert for two millennia, the scrolls _ which include the oldest written record of the Old Testament ever found _ were discovered by Bedouin shepherds. Since them, scientists all over the world have worked to decipher the few intact scrolls and thousands of scroll fragments. So far, they have identified about 900 distinct manuscripts.

Imaging the scrolls in color and infrared will allow scholars to read scroll fragments not visible to the naked eye, said the Israel Antiquities Authority. Many of the fragments were found in poor condition; others deteriorated over time.

The preservation project is drawing on the expertise of imaging and database experts, including Greg Bearman, who was until recently the principal scientist at NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory.

_ Michele Chabin

Quote of the Day: Vietnamese Catholic Nguyen Thi Phuc

(RNS) “We came to pray peacefully. Why did they have to beat us?”

_ Vietnamese Catholic Nguyen Thi Phuc, who had blood on her face as Hanoi police beat parishioners demanding the return of land taken by Vietnam’s communist government in the 1960s. She was quoted by The Associated Press (Aug. 28).

DSB/LF END RNS

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