On a tour of Thailand, amidst the various Wats and more worthy sites in the country the Dali Lama's itinerary took him along the South Eastern seaboard to Pattaya and Jomtiem.

Late on a Friday afternoon he was being driven slowly along Beach Road in a security convoy when there was a frantic commotion some 100 metres from the beach, the fleet of police cars and TV camera crew trucks came to a standstill.

A helpless American tourist wearing a Red Sox shirt, was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25 foot shark.

As the Dali Lama watched in horror, a Thai speedboat raced across the bay to where the man was fighting for his life, the boat stopped alongside the shark and three Thai men used wooden clubs and large knives to subdue the vicious shark's attack while another Thai man reached down to pull the limp semiconscious American from the water.

Then using ropes the Thai men hauled the now dead shark onto the boat's deck where it weighted down the whole boat as they slowly returned to the beach, where a crowd had gathered to watch the incident.

Immediately the Dali Lama summoned the brave Thai men to him. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions. I heard that there were some bad feeling towards farang in Thailand but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not true and your Buddhist beliefs gave you the strength to rescue the tourist from the jaws of death at great personal risk."

As the Dali Lama's convoy drove off, one of the Thai men holding a club splattered with shark's blood asked his friends from the boat, "Who was that?"

"That is the Dali Lama" one replied. "His is the Buddha of Compassion from Tibet , Dali Lama means Ocean of Wisdom he is respected across the world for his insight into many subjects as well as being a spiritual leader of the Buddhist faith."

"Well..." the man said, "...he may have much wisdom but he doesn't know anything about shark fishing. Is the bait holding up OK or do we need to get another one?"

Okay, unexpected punch-line, made me chuckle!

Actually, several years ago, the Dalai Lama was invited to come to Thailand to hold a series of lectures (no joke).

When the Chinese officials got word of it, they immediatly had someone phone Thai authorities with a protest.

Not surprisingly, the invitation to the Dalai Lama was pulled - with no official announcement. Thai gov't couldn't even broach the concept of standing up to big brother China on idealogical grounds. Although many countries, before and since have had the guts to tell China to 'take a hike!' on that topic.