University of Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart announced this morning that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will visit the university campus in Fayetteville to give a public lecture at Bud Walton Arena on May 11, 2011.
“We are extremely pleased to sponsor someone of the Dalai Lama’s reputation and stature,” Gearhart said. “He is a spiritual leader respected around the world for his message of compassion, peace and non-violence.”
The visit is a result of the efforts of professor Sidney Burris, director of the honors program in the J. William Fullbright College of Arts and Sciences, and Geshe Dorjee, a Tibetan monk and instructor in Fullbright College.
Burris extended the invitation in a letter sent in 2007. After he and Geshe Dorjee visited the Dalai Lama during a trip to India last summer, he finally got a response via email on March 12 of this year informing him that His Holiness was interested in visiting the University of Arkansas.
Other events planned for the year leading up to the Dalai Lama’s visit include a visit from members of the Mystical Arts of Tibet who will arrive in the third week of September to construct a Sand Mandala. Burris also intends to establish a community reading group that will study the writings of the Dalai Lama.
More information on the Dalai Lama’s visit and the events and activities leading up to it can be found at dalailama.uark.edu.
