Tickets for Dalai Lama lecture available

By GEOFF LARCOM
The Ann Arbor News

The long-awaited distribution of tickets for a free lecture by the 14th Dalai Lama will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Michigan Union Ticket Office.

"We do expect a big crowd," Heather Gray, manager of the ticket office, said Monday. "We've been on the phone all morning."

The free tickets are for the Dalai Lama's presentation of the University of Michigan's annual Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability in celebration of Earth Day. The lecture is April 20, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Crisler Arena.

Each person with a faculty, staff or student ID with picture will receive two free tickets to the lecture, Gray said. If available, free tickets will go to the public on Wednesday.

The ticket office opens at 9 a.m. The union opens at 7 a.m. Gray said she expects a line to form for the free tickets.

The Wege Lecture is part of a weekend of programs by the Dalai Lama. He will present talks on "Engaging Wisdom and Compassion" on April 19 from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. and April 20 from 10 a.m. to noon.

Individual tickets for those talks cost $10 for a Saturday or Sunday talk to $95 for a two-day ticket. Gray said tickets remain for those talks. Those have been on sale since Dec. 10.

To purchase tickets, visit the union box office or www.TicketMaster.com. The Web site for the Dalai Lama's visit is www.DalaiLamaAnnArbor.com.

Seating for the talks will be around 8,000 in the arena, Gray said.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is a Tibetan Buddhist leader who is recognized worldwide for his message of peace and tolerance. Gyatso is both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born in 1935 to a farming family in a small hamlet located in northeastern Tibet. At the age of 2, the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time, was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, according to the Dalai Lama's Web site.

The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet.

The Wege Lecture is sponsored by the Office of the President and the Center for Sustainable Systems at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

The Dalai Lama last visited Ann Arbor in 1994, when about 9,000 people attended a lecture at Crisler Arena.

For more information, call the Union Box Office at 734-763-8587.

Geoff Larcom can be reached at 734-994-6838 or glarcom@annarbornews.com.