How successful is the Anthropology Department's semester study abroad program in Dharamsala? So successful that his Holiness the Dalai Lama is coming to see where all these great students came from.

After having met many Miami students and faculty over the past five years, his Holiness the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal for championing the people of Tibet, announced he will visit Miami University Oct. 20-22. He will meet with students as well as give a public address.

Miami established a relationship with the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India, during summer workshops in Tibet led by Dr. Humayun Sidky and Dr. Deborah Akers from 2004-2008. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a patron of this institute, one of the premier institutions for study of Buddhist thought and philosophy.

A university delegation, led by Provost Jeffrey Herbst and including anthropology chair Dr. Linda Marchant and Prof. Mark Allen Peterson, visited Dharamsala in Fall 2009 and signed an affiliation agreement. The following year, the department made its Tibetan studies a semester-long program. 

The Venerable Geshe Kalsang Damdul, from the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, visited Miami and held a prayer flag ceremony here last February to commemorate the affiliation agreement. Similar events are planned for March of this year.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the spiritual leader of Tibet, in 1989 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence and also was the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems.

Miami’s summer workshop, Peoples and Culture of Tibet, has been conducted by Prof. Akers and Prof. Sidky in Dharamsala, the residence of the Dalai Lama in northern India, which is the location of the Tibetan government in exile.

In the new Tibetan studies semester program for Miami students in Dharamsala, Miami students can study at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (IBD) and the College for Higher Tibetan Studies (CHTS). Students are offered courses focusing on Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan medicine and meditation and an intensive sequence of language courses in Chinese, Tibetan and Hindi.

Since 1959 the Dalai Lama has received more than 84 awards, honorary doctorates and prizes in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. He has authored more than 72 books.