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LONDON (AP) — The Dalai Lama was met by supporters and protesters as he opened Britain's first Buddhist community center.
The 79-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader performed a blessing for the inauguration of the center in Aldershot, southwest of London. Aldershot is an army town with a substantial Buddhist population thanks to the Nepalese Gurkha regiment.
Several hundred members of the International Shugden Community chanted "Dalai Lama stop lying" as he arrived Monday. They accuse the Dalai Lama of preventing them from following their form of Buddhism, which he once practiced but renounced in the 1970s.
The Dalai Lama's supporters held a counter-demonstration nearby.
Opening the center, the spiritual leader seemed to refer to terrorist attacks in Tunisia and elsewhere, saying "killing in the name of religion is totally wrong" and calling for harmony.
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