Dalai Lama to speak in Danbury

His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet will be coming to Western Connecticut State University in Danbury in October for two days of talks. File/Kathleen O'Rourke/Staff photo Staff His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet will be coming to Western Connecticut State University in Danbury in October for two days of talks. File/Kathleen O'Rourke/Staff photo Staff Photo: Kathleen O'Rourke, ST Photo: Kathleen O'Rourke, ST Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Dalai Lama to speak in Danbury 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

DANBURY -- The Dalai Lama -- one of the world's most revered religious leaders, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a symbol of resistance against totalitarian regimes -- is scheduled to speak in Danbury in October.

Western Connecticut State University and the Do Ngak Kunphen Ling -- the Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace in Redding -- announced Tuesday that the Dalai Lama is expected to speak at the university on Oct. 18 and 19.

WestConn President James W. Schmotter said the event is an "auspicious day'' for the university.

"This is really exciting, both for the university and the community,'' Schmotter said Tuesday.

The Dalai Lama's talks on campus will not be a single event, Schmotter said. They will be preceded by a series of events tied into Tibetan history, creativity and spirituality.

"It will be what we view as a learning theme here,'' Schmotter said.

The announcement Tuesday is the culmination of two years of discussion and work.

More Information Coming to WestConn The Dalai Lama is scheduled to speak at public forums to be held at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 18 and at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 19 in the Feldman Arena in the O'Neill Center on the university's westside campus.

In 2010, WestConn began working with the Tibetan Buddhist Center in Redding to bring the Dalai Lama to the area.

Two WestConn professors -- John Briggs, professor of writing, linguistics and creative process, and Eric Lewis, professor of music and music education -- were involved in these talks.

"It has been illuminating that what we once saw as a fantasy has become a reality,'' Briggs said

The Dalai Lama, the 14th in a line of Tibetan spiritual leaders, was born in 1935. At the age of 2, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama and was formally given his position at the age of 15.

Educated in Tibetan monasteries, the Dalai Lama has been both the spiritual and political leader of Tibet for much of the last half-century.

Throughout the 1950s, he worked to achieve a peaceful resolution between Tibet and China, which has claimed the country of Tibet as Chinese territory. But in 1959, with Chinese troops invading Tibet, he fled to safety in India.

For the past half-century, he has been the foremost voice for the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion in the face of Chinese suppression of the Tibetan way of life. In 1989, the Dalai Lama was given the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of his native country.

He has also been one of the world's leading proponents of nonviolence and was the first Nobel peace laureate to address the issue of environmental awareness. To spread his message of compassion, he has traveled to more than 62 countries and six continents.

In 2011, the Dalai Lama relinquished the political leadership of his country to Harvard Law School graduate and international legal scholar Lobsang Sangay, who was elected prime minister of Tibet by his fellow exiles. Lobsang Sangay is expected to speak at WestConn in February as part of the year's study on Tibet.

In a news release, Schmotter spoke of the Dalai Lama's message for WestConn and the world.

"We have many friends, but we also have enemies -- and the one enemy that we struggle against every day is ignorance," Schmotter said. "As His Holiness has said, where ignorance is the master, there is no possibility of real peace. We hope to learn from him in his teaching to help us in our struggle against ignorance."

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