The Dalai Lama’s Envoys, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, will arrive in China on Tuesday, 26 January for discussions with the representatives of the Chinese leadership, the Office of the Dalai Lama said in a statement today. This is the ninth round of the dialogue process and the first meeting since November 2008.

They Envoys will be accompanied by senior assistants Tenzin Atisha, Bhuchung Tsering and Jigmey Passang. Tenzin Atisha served as the Australian Representative of the Dalai Lama from 2003 to November 2009.

“We are meeting the Chinese and this is an important process of trying to find a mutually agreed solution,” the Dalai Lama’s spokesman Tenzin Taklha said on Monday, referring to the dispute over Tibet’s autonomy.

“The agenda of his holiness the Dalai Lama is the same: that the problem has to be solved only through dialogue,” he said.

The delegation is expected to return to India at the beginning of February.

Tibetan Envoys In Beijing As China Revamps Policy”

Dalai Lama’s Envoys To Arrive In China Tuesday for Ninth Round Of Talks