Desmond Tutu & the Dalai Lama There are those who say that all religion is the cause of strife or that it’s hard for people of different faiths to be friends. Yet two of the world ’s great spiritual leaders defied this. Anglican Archbishop and veteran South African anti-apar theid campaigner Desmond Tutu, who died in December 2021, was great friends with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist monk and spiritual leader.