Dalai Lama Offers $100K to Save Florida Religion Dept.

The Dalai Lama has ponied up $100,000 to help save a Florida college's religion department  from being closed in a round of budget cutting, the Miami Herald reports. “In our deeply interconnected world, understanding and appreciation of diversity of religions is critical in fostering a culture of genuine tolerance and peaceful coexistence,” he wrote to Florida International University’s president.

The department has accepted the offer, says an “astounded” professor, a friend of the Tibetan leader who wrote to him last month.  But the donation can’t single-handedly save the department, which costs some $600,000 a year to run. The Dalai Lama has visited FIU twice: in 1999, when he received an honorary doctorate of divinity, and in 2004. (Read more Dalai Lama stories.)