“His plane has just landed at Vilnius Airport,” an organizer of the visit told BNS.
According to Rūta Norkutė, the Tibetan spiritual leader was greeted by Vytis Vidūnas, director of Tibeto Namai (House of Tibet), and Rajinder Kumar Chaudhary, India’s honorary consul to Lithuania.
The program of the four-day visit includes a news conference, an open lecture on human values in education at Vilnius University and a paid public talk on “The Art of Happiness” at the capital’s Siemens Arena.
The Dalai Lama is also scheduled to visit Tibeto Skveras, a small park in Vilnius named after Tibet, to plant a symbolic tree marking the centenary of Lithuania’s restored statehood, and an exhibition entitled “Tibet – A Different Reality” featuring photographs by Jurga Ivanauskaitė.
He is also to meet with Tibetan supporters in Lithuania, including some politicians, business people and public figures.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with the Tibetan leader during his latest visit back in 2013, thus angering China.
Lithuania’s top officials do not plan to meet with him this time.
Lithuania officially considers the Tibet region in the Himalayas a part of China, but, along with other EU member countries, it calls for peaceful regulation of relations between the Chinese administration and Tibetans.