Patti Smith Brings Out the Dalai Lama at Glastonbury

Music festivals often feature big name artists bringing out big name guests, but those guests are usually other musicians. During her set at Glastonbury, Patti Smith was joined by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ahead of his 80th birthday on July 6, she read him a poem and led the audience in a “Happy Birthday” sing-along, The Guardian reports. Update: Watch full video below.

He responded:

Thank you, thank you. Dear sisters and brothers, I really appreciate so many people’s expressions of warmth, and I very much reciprocate it. I have dedicated my body, speech and mind to the well-being of others in my daily practice, so when people show these warm feelings, that gives me more enthusiasm. So I very much appreciate it.

These singers and musicians, most of you, have white hair—but the voice and the physical action looks very youthful. So that gives me encouragement myself. I’m now 80, but I should be more active like you.

Earlier in the day, the Dalai Lama took the stage to address the “unthinkable” violence in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria.

Smith has performed at several Tibet House benefit concerts. She wrote a poem for the Dalai Lama in 1994 and met him in 1995 at the World Peace Conference in Berlin. “I learned quite a bit from that man,” she said in a 1996 interview. “He would stand in front of a large body of people and project and magnify his joys and hopes so that all those people would be smiling. He was able to make each person feel radiant.” 

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