Richard Gere says visiting monasteries in India has made him calmer

Sikkim (Gangtok): Hollywood actor and Buddhist devotee Richard Gere on Saturday said that he felt elated after visiting monasteries in India and added that following Budhist religion has made him a calmer person.

Richard Gere said that the he felt very relaxed by undertaking such spiritual trips. "I feel very comfortable here, very relaxed, at ease as if this is a very natural place for me to be in. I have a personal commitment to come back here again and again," said Gere. "In the monsoon season I did go to Dharamsala and had a meeting with his holiness, the Dalai Lama. Having spent a few weeks around with Tibetans I felt that kind of natural affinity started to break up like a massage curing the dissonance that I had been feeling," he said. The 63-year-old American actor began his spiritual tour on Wednesday by visiting the Tsuklakhang monastry in Gangtok. Gere who is a practicing Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa School, is scheduled to visit many other monasteries in the state besides participating in a close friend`s wedding in Gangtok. Recounting, Richard Gere said that adopting the Buddhist religion cured him of an emotional discord that he felt at a point in time. The `Pretty Woman` and `Chicago` star would leave on Saturday after visiting Pema Yangtse and Tashiding monasteries. He is also slated to deliver a speech on Buddhism during an event in Gangtok. Known to be very close to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the actor has been supporting humanitarian projects through his foundations including the ` Gere Foundation India Trust` since 1999. Gere took to Budhhism in his late-twenties and is an advocate for human rights in Tibet. ANI