Dalai Lama Plans Visit To Campus This Fall

This fall Harvard will welcome one of the world’s most prominent religious leaders when His Holiness the Dalai Lama visits the campus for the first time since 1995.

The famed spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people is currently scheduled to address the Harvard community on Monday, Sept. 15, most likely at The Memorial Church.

“It will be open to the entire Harvard community,” said Deirdre Chetham, executive director of the Harvard University Asia Center, which is hosting the Dalai Lama. “We’re still working out the details, but we expect a lunch or possibly other events during the day.”

The Harvard Students for a Free Tibet, who have about 30 active members, plan to hold a series of events to tie in with the Dalai Lama’s visit and increase interest in their cause.

Group Treasurer Ada M. McMahon ’06 said the Free Tibet movement has suffered due to a shift in attention to more recent global issues and hopes the leader’s visit will reenergize the movement.

“Given the world situation, [Tibet’s cause] is not on the forefront of people’s minds, especially because it is non-violent, but having His Holiness come is the biggest attention for the cause we can get,” she said.

The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso fled Tibet in 1959, when Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in the region.

He has led his people from exile in India ever since. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his efforts to end the Chinese occupation.

Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies Janet Gyatso expects that the Dalai Lama’s comments to the Harvard community will focus on Buddhist teaching and its larger humanitarian implications, rather than the political aspects of the fight to free Tibet.

She said that while he is “very much concerned with the situation in Tibet,...he primarily sees himself as a Buddhist teacher and doesn’t want to engage in overt politics,” she said. “He favors his role as a religious leader, while he is aware of the political significance of his presence.”

She said that when in the United States he often speaks about Buddhism’s “humanistic values, such as compassion and world peace.”

The visit is part of a larger tour of the United States, which will also include stops in Bloomington, Ind., San Francisco and New York City.

During his stay in the Boston area, the Dalai Lama will attend a two-day conference at MIT concerning the connections between Buddhist meditation and modern science and will bless a temple in Medford.

On Sunday, Sept. 14, the Dalai Lama will deliver a speech entitled “A Public Talk for New England” at the FleetCenter, in which he is to discuss ways to live positively during troubled times.

The Dalai Lama last visited Boston in 1998, and last spoke at Harvard in 1995.

He was scheduled to address the campus last spring but had to cancel due to health concerns.

He is the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama, meaning “ocean of wisdom,” and is the traditional leader of the Tibetan people.

Each Dalai Lama is believed to be the Buddha of Compassion, reincarnated to serve the population.

The current Dalai Lama was recognized as the reincarnation in 1937 at the age of two, and was enthroned in 1940.

Over 80,000 Tibetan followers joined him in his exile in India in 1959, and the nation’s cause has become famous internationally, especially on college campuses.

The Nobel Peace Prize added renown to the Tibetan struggle. The Dalai Lama won the award for his non-violent efforts, which have emphasized peaceful dialogue and reconciliation with China.

He continues to travel worldwide meeting with prominent leaders, calling for universal human rights and voicing Tibet’s specific concerns.

—Staff writer Margaretta E. Homsey can be reached at homsey@fas.harvard.edu.