|
TOKYO - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived Thursday in Japan on a short stopover amid international furore over China's crackdown in his homeland, witnesses said.
The Dalai Lama smiled, said hello and put his hands together in a traditional Buddhist greeting as several dozen supporters greeted him at Narita airport near Tokyo, Jiji Press reported.
The Nobel peace laureate was due to hold a news conference later at Narita. The monk, who lives in exile in India, will then head on to Seattle to start a series of lectures in the United States about spirituality.
The Dalai Lama has frequently visited Japan and transited through Tokyo. But the current visit comes amid high tension after the biggest demonstrations in nearly 20 years in Tibet against China's controversial rule.
Tibetan supporters have also protested during the torch relay for the Beijing Olympics, with the procession shortened on Wednesday in San Francisco.
"We want autonomy. We want China to talk to him immediately, otherwise there will be no solution," a supporter surnamed Ohara told Jiji Press as he greeted the Dalai Lama.
China has regularly protested against countries that agree to visits by the globe-trotting Dalai Lama.
Japanese leaders, unlike many of their Western counterparts, has almost always refused to meet with the Dalai Lama and no officials were scheduled to meet with him on his stopover.
But Kyodo News, quoting unnamed sources, said that the Dalai Lama would meet at a hotel with Akie Abe, the wife of Japan's former conservative prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan is trying to repair uneasy relations with China, its largest commercial partner.
Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China, whose troops overran the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan territory in 1951.
The Dalai Lama says he is seeking only autonomy within China and opposes the use of violence.
| 
