By CLAY EVANS

Camera Staff Writer

BOULDER, Sunday, June 1, 1997 (Daily Camera) - Whether his audience were jaded journalists grilling him about U.S. foreign policy, hope-filled kids in sandals or Boulder residents at the hottest event so far this year, the Dalai Lama's simple message Saturday was essentially the same:

Human beings - all sentient beings, in fact - want and deserve happiness. And the way to such happiness lies through compassion, kindness and non-violence.

Dialogue, he said again and again, must replace warfare and conflict in the coming century.

"Long-lasting world peace must be made on the national level, the family level and the individual level," the 62-year-old spiritual and temporal leader of thousands of the world's exiled Tibetans told an audience of 2,000 at Macky Auditorium at the University of Colorado. "Without inner peace, it is impossible to achieve genuine peace."

He decried materialism, declared optimism the only viable way to a successful future and worried out loud about continuing degradation of the environment, especially in his native country, where he said the occupying Chinese are undertaking rampant deforestation and irreparable strip mining.

He repeated to all three audiences, who heard him in Boulder and Denver, his belief that tolerance is the key to peace and that nobody should assume his or her religion fits everyone.

"For me, Buddhism is best. But this does not mean Buddhism is best for everyone," he told the Macky audience.

He also advised those who turn away from the faith of their birth not to excoriate in hindsight: "Just because you don't stick to your tradition, millions of people do ... you must still have respect."

With his audience bathed in golden, early evening light as it poured through Macky's western windows, the Dalai Lama demonstrated his easygoing, humorous even self-deprecating - wit, sending his audience into laughter many times.

When his interpreter - the Dalai Lama spoke mostly in halting English, but occasionally surged into his native tongue - read him a question from the audience about how best to prepare a child for life in the 21st century, he first gave a pause that seemed almost comedic in its timing.

"I think you know better," said the Buddhist monk, who is not married and has no children.

But during his first full day of appearances in Denver and Boulder on a whirlwind weekend trip to Colorado, the Dalai Lama also made a few pronouncements that may have surprised his varied audiences.

He said, for instance, that in general it's better and easier for people to stay within the religious tradition of their birth and upbringing, rather than try to shift midstream.

"Generally speaking, it is better to follow your own tradition. The change of your religion is not easy," he said to a Macky audience that included many converted Buddhists.

While pronouncing himself a "half Buddhist, half Marxist," he also emphasized that he no longer seeks full independence for his homeland, which China invaded in 1959. Rather, he seemed to endorse the Clinton administration's policy of "constructive engagement" with the People's Republic of China as a way to ensure that China does not destroy what is left of traditional Tibetan culture.

He called on the world to pressure China into dialogue with him and the Tibetan people.

Tibet is "really facing cultural extinction. This is my main concern is to stop this," he told journalists at Denver's Regis University during a morning press conference. "Please help us bring the Chinese government to the table."

He also told an audience of some 200 teenagers that he saw no reason there couldn't be a female Dalai Lama in the future while humbly suggesting that the institution of his office may not always hold meaning for Ti betans.

The Macky appearance - which was sold out the day after tickets went on sale drew people from across Boulder's broad spectrum to hear the words of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

There were Sikhs and people wearing Jewish yarmulkes. A long-robed, long-bearded member of the Assembly of YHWH near Pueblo waited hopefully for a ticket. Just before he came on stage, His Holiness held a private meeting with Philip Anschutz, among Colorado's richest people.

Deb Delman was among those who got lucky: After politely asking many people, she finally found a ticket.

"I would hope (his appearance) will generate more awareness of the Tibetan situation," said the 27-year-old Nederland resident, who last fall witnessed Tibetan refugees, including children, crossing into neighboring Nepal. "I want to say it was unbelievable, but the point is, it isn't. Those people were real."

Wherever he went Saturday, the Dalai Lama left a wake of openly amazed and impressed people. At Regis, he helped some 200 area teenagers plant a "peace garden" and greeted each one individually.

Nora Gully, just finishing her junior year at Boulder High School, came away from the experience almost speechless.

"I'm still shaking," she said, "because he touched me. I hope he'll see me again later on."

Students presented the Dalai Lama with prayers for peace they had written in small groups - "We hope this garden grows as peace in Tibet grows," read one and exited the area where he greeted them with satisfied sighs.

"I said "om" to him and touched his forehead," said Manora Nygren, a senior at Boulder's New Vista High School. "It's just the energy you feel as you walk into his space. Your heart opens, and you have a space to be filled."

The Dalai Lama will continue a busy schedule today with a morning conference at Naropa Institute in Boulder, further meetings with PeaceJam kids until noon, and receiving an honorary degree from Regis before an interfaith service at McNichols Arena at 5:30 p.m.

He is scheduled to leave for Los Angeles on Monday.