Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Dalai Lama will be visiting the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky and Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., this week.

The Dalai Lama is coming to Gethsemani, in Nelson County, in part because he had a special relationship with the late Thomas Merton. A Trappist monk who lived at Gethsemani, Merton wrote about issues of peace, freedom and justice, and visited the Dalai Lama in India not long before Merton's death in Thailand in 1968.

A Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama is one of the world's most respected Buddhist leaders and is the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

In a recent interview on PBS, the Dalai Lama spoke warmly of Merton: "I do believe the various major world religions - in spite of different philosophy, different traditions - have great potential to give humanity peace of mind, tranquility. This especially I learned from the late Thomas Merton. And from him I learned the great potential of Christianity to produce compassion, inner peace.... In spite of different philosophy, different traditions all teach, "Be good human beings"."

Trish Pugh Jones, executive director of the Cathedral Heritage Foundation, an ecumenical group in Louisville, met the Dalai Lama two years ago, when he was last in Kentucky.

''My impression of him was an incredibly joyous man - he just radiated joy. When you meet him, he puts himself below you. He bows, so that he's lower than you. And that's to show his humility. It's just an extra- ordinarily powerful feeling, of great joy and happiness in his presence.'' Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama now lives in Dharmsala, India, seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. In 1989, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to liberate Tibet from the Chinese without the use of violence.

The Dalai Lama will be attending a weeklong retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani through Saturday. On Friday, he will give a public lecture at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, and on Saturday he will lay the cornerstone for a new Buddhist temple in Bloomington.

The Dalai Lama's brother, Thubten Jigme Norbu, a former professor of Tibetan studies at Indiana University, lives in Bloomington, and his nephew Jigme Norbu, owns Tibetan restaurants in Bloomington called Snow Lion.