Since the early days of Google+ (a couple of months ago), Google has been trying to court big names into getting involved in the burgeoning social network. The logic is simple – big names on the service means more general users – isn’t that right Twitter?

Today, the social network gained one high profile global figure. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is now on Google+.

He announced this with a post this morning that gives a short “mission statement” of sorts to those who would add him to their circles –

Welcome to the official Google+ page of the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. His Holiness is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of inter-religious harmony and the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture and religion.

It already looks like His Holiness doesn’t plan on being one of those guys who just joins and then never does anything with the service – he has already scheduled a Hangout for Saturday, October 8th.

The Hangout will be a live convo with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, according to his G+ post-

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will have a conversation with Archbishop Desmond Tutu by live video over a Hangout (Google+‘s video conferencing platform) as part of the Inaugural Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 8, 2011, starting at 10:30am South African time (GMT+2.00). A link to the Google+ Hangout will be available approximately 20-30 minutes before the event begins.

Unfortunately for those in the States, that’s 4:30 am Eastern and 1:30 am Pacific.

The Dalai Lama already looks to be pretty popular for only having a profile for one day. His latest post about the hangout has already garnered nearly 500 +1’s and over 1300 shares.

He is already pretty popular on Twitter, which he joined earlier this year. There he has over 2.5 million followers.

Is this the kind of person that will up your interest in Google+? Let us know in the comments.