The Buddhist will appear with the Dalai Lama and author Alice Walker at Emory University on Oct. 19 for a panel discussion of spirituality and the arts.

The forum is part of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's weekend visit to Emory as the university's presidential distinguished professor. He was last on campus in 2007.

Gere is longtime Buddhist and follower of the Dalai Lama.

Emory began its partnership with Tibet in 1998, sending students and scholars to the Dalai Lama's exile home in India to study with the monks each year. The university also has developed a science textbook written in Tibetan for the monks.