Does the Dalai Lama eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast?

No, instead he has a roasted barley flour product, as was discussed in a January 10, 2015 article by Rebecca Seal in The Guardian titled Breakfast of champions: the Dalai Lama’s tsampa. (It is dangerous to assume that everyone else obviously does things the same way that we do). On Feb 20, 2019 there was a Harvard Business Review web article by him titled The Dalai Lama on why leaders should be mindful, selfless, and compassionate.

I read about tsampa in a 2008 book by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid titled Beyond the Great Wall: recipes and travels in the other China. As shown above, I tried making some from pearled barley. It is an interesting instant alternative to oatmeal. Another is an Indian rice flake product called poha, which I discussed in a September 29, 2013 post titled What did you have for breakfast this fall morning?

In Korea they also make a tea called boricha from roasted barley, which I had read about it on page 667 of Mark Bittman’s 2005 book The Best Recipes in the World. I brewed a cup of it, but was not impressed.   

An image of a bowl of oatmeal came from Renee Comet at the National Cancer Institute.