Plans are in the works to bring the Dalai Lama to speak in Boulder in October, officials at Naropa and the University of Colorado confirmed Friday.

His appearance on the CU campus would mark the Tibetan spiritual leader’s first visit to Boulder in 18 years.

The visit is being organized by the Tibetan Association of Colorado, according to Naropa officials. The date of the planned visit has not been announced.

“Naropa University is delighted that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is returning to Boulder in October 2015,” Naropa President Charles G. Lief said in a statement. “As a Buddhist-inspired university, Naropa’s connection with His Holiness and his work goes back to his first visit to the United States more than 30 years ago, when past and current Naropa staff and faculty were involved as organizers.

“It’s a great honor to Boulder, and a testament to the strength of the Buddhist community in Boulder, that the Dalai Lama is returning now.”

Organizers are considering the 11,000-seat Coors Events Center for the appearance by the 79-year-old exiled Buddhist leader, CU police Chief Melissa Zak said.

Zak said she has been asked to determine how much it would cost to provide security for a visit by the Dalai Lama.

“There are a lot of fluid things on this, but we are hoping that we as a university would get to host him,” she said. “It would be a wonderful opportunity for the Dalai Lama to come to CU.”

Zak said she has been looking at the cost of providing security for three visits by President Barack Obama to the campus in 2012 as a baseline for what it would take to staff a visit by the Dalai Lama.

“Typically, when you have VIPs such as the Dalai Lama coming, there is a lot of discussion going on,” Zak said. “Before you can even plan a contract, you have to know what it is going to cost.”

‘It was phenomenal’

CU student leaders said Friday they are involved in the efforts to bring the Dalai Lama to campus but noted that plans have not yet been finalized. They said an official announcement about the visit could be made sometime this month.

Zak, CU’s police chief, worked for the Los Angeles Police Department when the Dalai Lama spoke at the University of Southern California in 2011, so she has an idea of what a visit would entail.

“I am familiar with his SC visit, which was probably a four-hour window in a smaller venue,” Zak said. “It was phenomenal. … It was very much a peaceful event, and people really wanted to hear his message.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase SC, and I would expect the same thing would occur here at CU should we be blessed to have him come here and speak.”

In his statement, Naropa’s Lief said the Dalai Lama’s return to Boulder would also be to support the Tibetan Association of Colorado, “a wonderful organization of Tibetan immigrants who are working hard to keep their culture and traditions alive.”

The Tibetan Association of Colorado did not return requests for comment Friday.

Tenzin Passang, owner of the Tibet Gallery on the Pearl Street Mall, said he has heard the Dalai Lamai speak on several occasions, and it is an honor for the city that he is coming once again.

“We are very excited,” said Passang, who was born in India but whose parents were from Tibet. “It is a great blessing for Boulder, especially with Boulder being a big Buddhist community.”

Passang said he anticipates a lot of Tibetans will come from outside the state for the chance to hear the Dalai Lama.

“He is our everything,” Passang said. “Not only in Colorado, but for all the surrounding Tibetans, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Visits to Boulder in 1997, 1981

The current Dalai Lama — who was formally recognized as the 14th incarnation in 1950 at the age of 15 — was last in Boulder in 1997, when he spoke at both CU and Naropa.

“In 1997, the Dalai Lama delivered the keynote address at a groundbreaking conference at Naropa on spirituality and education,” Lief said in the statement. “The Dalai Lama’s participation in Naropa’s conference on spirituality and education also catalyzed the global mindfulness movement in education and the workplace.”

The day before that speech at Naropa, the Dalai Lama spoke at CU’s Macky Auditorium, alternating between English and speaking through a translator on topics ranging from compassion to the possibility of a female Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama’s appearance had been planned for the Coors Events Center during that visit, but it had to be moved to the much-smaller Macky Auditorium over scheduling issues, which led to tickets selling out on the first day they became available.

The Dalai Lama also spoke at the McNichols Center in Denver during that 1997 trip, before traveling on to Los Angeles.

This Dalai Lama first visited Boulder in 1981, when he spoke before about 4,000 people at CU’s events center.

Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars