The University of Innsbruck in Austria is one of the world's leading centres for research into the mysteries and subtleties of quantum theory. The work of Anton Zeilinger and colleagues at Innsbruck – such as the experimental demonstration of quantum teleportation – regularly appears in the leading journals, and in magazines such as Physics World. Recently a surprising figure was seen in the labs. Was that really the Dalai Lama – the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize – checking out a quantum optics experiment?