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David Gearhart: Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that on May
the 11th, 2011, as a part of our distinguished lecture series, the University of Arkansas
will be hosting his holiness, the Dalai Lama. This lecture will be held at Bud Walton Arena
and will be free to all students. We are extremely pleased to sponsor someone of the Dalai Lama's
reputation and stature. He is a spiritual leader, respected around the world for his
message of compassion, peace and non-violence. In fact Dr. Sidney Burris and Geshe Dorjee,
a Tibetan monk and fellow instructor at the university, met the Dalai Lama during a trip
to India last summer. It is these two gentlemen who laid the ground work and really the two
that are responsible for this visit for the Dalai Lama coming to the University of Arkansas.
And I want to specifically thank them for their hard work and assistance in bringing
him here to campus. Sidney Burris: As a result of the intelligence,
the humility, the hard work, the shear endurance, partly because of these qualities in our students
we were granted last summer an audience with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. And it
is my personal belief that this meeting helped to make our case that Arkansas would be a
worthy place for the Dalai Lama to visit. Geshe Thupten Dorjee: And I'm of course very
happy in that his holiness will be visiting our campus. For the first day that I arrived
in Fayetteville, meeting Dr. Burris in the pit near biggest stadium I have ever seen.
I thought the Dalai Lama should be come to our university. For Tibetans, of course his
holiness, Dalai Lama, is our true leader, living symbol of compassion and kindness.
Any one of six million Tibetan people living in Tibet now, would love to walk days just
for an opportunity to see his holiness Dalai Lama for a few seconds. And now everyone here
will have and opportunity to see him, to hear him, to learn from his wisdom of love and
compassion.