The Dalai Lama will celebrate his 80th birthday in Orange County with thousands over three July days.

The Buddhist leader will appear July 5 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, as well as at UCI on July 6 and 7. Tickets for the Global Compassion Summit go on sale April 2, when the prices will be announced.

Ticket sales will help cover expenses, said a spokeswoman for the Friends of Dalai Lama; any surplus would be given to charities.

Celebrities, Nobel laureates, world leaders and performers will participate, but their names have yet to be revealed. The 14th Dalai Lama’s birthday is July 6.

“We’re very honored he’s coming to Anaheim to celebrate his 80th birthday,” said the city’s mayor, Tom Tait.

Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama’s personal emissary for peace, met with Tait, who has promoted kindness as a core value during his tenure.

“I felt his words were confirmation that Anaheim was the right location to celebrate the birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is known internationally as a true advocate for peace and an embodiment of kindness,” Dhonden said in a statement. “Honda Center is an ideal facility to hold such a celebration.”

“His Holiness visited U.C. Irvine twice, in 2004 and 2011,” Dhonden said. “Since then, I have found that the university has really carried on the message and the values that His Holiness shares. They value the education of the heart as much as they value the education of the mind.”

The UCI events will include a presentation, a dialog with Nobel laureates and a youth panel, said UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon. The UC Irvine XIV Dalai Lama Endowed Scholarship was established in honor of his 2004 visit.

When the Dalai Lama last came to UCI in 2011, some attendees lined up at 7 a.m. to make sure they got into the 1:30 p.m. speech, which 6,000 heard.

“He embodies a lot of the values that UCI stands for,” Lawhon said.

The Dalai Lama is from Tibet, which he left in exile to India in 1959.

For information and for tickets, when they go on sale, go to: hhdl80.org.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3793 or stully@ocregister.com