MOSCOW - The Dalai Lama will likely visit Russia later this summer and travel to traditionally Buddhist regions of the country near the border with Mongolia and along the shores of the Caspian Sea, a Buddhist church representative said Friday.
"We sent a delegation to his holiness, and he expressed the possibility of a trip to Russia in August. He accepted the invitation. There's a good chance he will come," said Balzhirov Sanjailama, a representative of the Buddhist Traditional Church in Russia.
Several areas of Russia are predominantly Buddhist, including the republic of Kalmykia on the Caspian Sea coast and the Buryatia region near the Mongolian border. The trip would be the second by the Buddhist leader to Russia after a 1991 visit before the Soviet Union collapsed.
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan branch of Buddhism but has lived in exile from his Himalayan homeland since a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.