About 7,000 people packed U.N.I.’s McLeod Center this morning to listen to a panel discussion between the Dalai Lama and several panelists, focusing on education in a nonviolent world.

The discussion began about 25 minutes late and featured questions from the four panelists directed to His Holiness. There were lighthearted moments, like when the Dalai Lama said he was happy to be in the state and demonstrated his trouble pronouncing the word Iowa.

It’s the first visit to Iowa for the Nobel Peace Prize winner, in a trip that included earlier stops in Indiana and Wisconsin. The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet will also give a speech today about education and its importance in our increasingly global society.

By Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Oelwein