the term "gentleman" being too Occidental
That’s a good point, etaoin. Even within our own Western culture I think we could find several debatable nuances of the words ‘gentleman’ and ’scholar’.
If we accept that the concept of ‘gentleman’ has a theoretical ideal (please forgive the mixing of philosophies and cultures) that transcends Occidental and Oriental, and the like, Thich Nhat Han would be, in my mind, something akin to the quintessential gentleman – perhaps a Bodhisattva of gentlemen, if you will. I’m sure he would also qualify as a gentleman as far as our general, Western definition of ‘gentleman’ is concerned, too. Certainly, his academic achievements would qualify him as a scholar.
Regarding the Dalai Lama, I think the word in question would be ‘scholar’. If we accept that the concept of ‘scholar’ has a theoretical ideal (again, forgive me), which encompasses all knowledge (assuming the concept of ‘knowledge’ has a theoretical ideal, which encompasses all possible knowledge, known and unknown, accepted and unaccepted, proven and yet-to-be proven), then in my mind, the Dalai Lama is most definitely a scholar. He is certainly a gentleman, in both the Western sense and the ideal sense.
