The Dalai Lama arrives at UBC Sunday for a panel discussion as part of the World Peace Summit in Vancouver. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

The Dalai Lama told the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit on Sunday that technology might be getting in the way of peace.

The revered spiritual leader expressed concern that technology may be eliminating compassion — even as he used the technology of a tiny microphone attached to his ear and watched his friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak from South Africa via video.

"I think technology may have some benefits for a smart brain but no capacity to produce compassion," the Dalai Lama told about 12,000 devoted fans at the opening session of the peace summit on Sunday.

He said in a panel discussion that compassion and awareness that will lead to peace.

Fellow panellist Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder, disagreed with the Dalai Lama's comments about technology, saying the internet has enabled us to discover that people around the world have much more in common than first believed. This awareness can lead to peace, he said.

Dalai Lama, Tutu honoured with prize

The Dalai Lama is the star attraction at the three-day conference at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia, which will see Nobel Peace Prize winners and spiritual, corporate and social leaders gather to talk about world peace.

The Tibetan spiritual leader told the crowd that peace starts first with individuals, then goes to the family level, the community and then to leaders.

The Dalai Lama and Tutu were both presented with the Fetzer Prize for Love and Forgiveness at the summit.

Tutu, who gave his thanks via video from South Africa, said religion has often been used almost diabolically to encourage such things as xenophobia and homophobia.

"I sometimes wonder how people could ever think that God is a Christian," he said. "The spirit of God is wider than any one particular faith."

Tutu injured his back and apologized for not being able to attend the summit.

Tutu's daughter Rev. Mpho Tutu accepted the prize for her father and took his place during the panel discussion on peace. Technology can be considered neutral in the quest for peace, she said.

"We can employ technology as a force for good, as a force for drawing us closer together."

In a videotaped welcome, Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean said the peace summit was a "dazzling constellation of global-change agents."

International gatherings such as this are crucial to renew the spirit of peace, she said, and it's time to create a new civic road map for world peace.

"Yet daunting challenges lie ahead," Jean said. "Every day, women and men are slaughtered and maimed in armed conflicts."

Other summit participants include former prime minister Kim Campbell, Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland and a former UN high commissioner for human rights, Nobel Prize winners Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire and authors Eckhart Tolle and Ken Robinson.

The summit is to conclude Tuesday, when the Dalai Lama and California governor's wife Maria Shriver, who has helped create many programs that help women change their lives, will discuss women and peace-building.