London: A "shocked" Dalai Lama has written to Prime Minister David Cameron and expressed sadness over the massive riots in London and other towns across Britain last year.
"I have the idea of Englishmen as mature, sensible, law-abiding people, If (riots) happen in England, it is a shock," 76-year-old Dalai Lama said while receiving the prestigious GBP 1.1 million Templeton Prize at the St Paul's Cathedral here.
"I sent a letter to the Prime Minister in which I expressed sadness and urged to him to think about the causes of the riots," he added.
The root cause for the riots, according to him was that the young were being "brought up to believe that life was just easy. Life is not easy. If you take for granted that life will be easy, then anger develops, frustration, and riots."
Asked about the Occupy protest outside St Paul's, he said: "If their reasons and motivations are sincere, then I will join with them."
He thought the protests were justified as a way of bringing to light grievances which would otherwise have been ignored.
The riots sparked by the police shooting of black youth Mark Duggan on August 04, 2011 in London led to considerable financial and reputation loss as images of shops and rampaging mobs were beamed live on television across the globe.
PTI
First Published: Monday, May 14, 2012, 19:38