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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:23 p.m., Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Dalai Lama plans Maui visit

Advertiser Staff

The Dalai Lama is planning to make his first visit to Maui next April.

"It's very good (news)," said Lama Dhondup Gyaltsen. "Now is the time to visit here."

It's only the third time the Nobel Prize winner has visited Hawai'i. He visited O'ahu and the Big Island in 1980 and again in 1994.

The upcoming visit will be April 23-26. He'll be leaving the morning of April 26 for San Francisco.

Plans are under way for private meetings as well as at least two public events. There will be a public talk and a public teaching. Planners are working to secure a large enough venue, possibly the Maui Cultural Center, Dhondup Gyaltsen said.

Preparations include building a stupa, or a prayer tower, which is built for "Buddha coming from the heavens," he said.

The Lha Bab Stupa is at least two stories tall and will have a prayer wheel and an inner area for prayer items, including shrines and other relics. The Dharma Center of Maui began building the stupa more than six months ago using paid and volunteer workers.

The Dalai Lama will be arriving from Japan.