His Holiness the Dalai Lama, (C)  Lech Walesa (L), former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner and fellow laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel (R) greet each other in Gdansk, Poland, on 5 December 2008. Walesa was hosting a gathering of  Nobel Peace Prize laureates to mark the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize win/Photo: AP

Dharamshala: Poland’s capital Warsaw will honour His Holiness the Dalai Lama with its honourary citizenship when His Holiness visits the country next week, EuAsiaNews online website reported Thursday. “It will be a great privilege to receive him and honour him with the honorary citizenship of Warsaw.Last year when he came to Poland to participate in the seminar organised by Lech Walesa, the former trade union leader and the noble laureate, the city council had made up its mind to invite His Holiness,” said Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, mayor of Warsaw.On 29 July His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be given this award at the Royal Palace in the historic place in the Old City.A day earlier, His Holiness will give a public talk on “Value of Education and Universal Responsibility” at the University of Warsaw. “There are only two charismatic leaders in the world. One is Nelson Mandela and the other is Dalai Lama. Poles never had a chance to welcome Mandela but they are fortunate that they meet and interact with His Holiness. He has come to Poland four times in the last 20 years and the attraction towards Tibetian Buddhism has increased many fold through out Poland,” said Jayanti de Varion, an Indian lady married to a former Polish ambassador to Britain and a practising Buddhist.“No where Dalai Lama is so popular as he is in Poland these days. Here people just adore him and see him a great spiritual leader whose very presence creates an aesthetic atmosphere. Earlier, Polish Pope John Paul II used to create such a serene atmosphere during his journeys to his native land from 1979 to 2006.,” EuAsiaNews website noted.