Tibetan Spiritual leader Dalai Lama is on a 13-day trip to the US, his first foreign trip since China’s offensive on protests in Tibet. The exiled spiritual leader arrived in Seattle in the US on Thursday, 10 April 2008. His Holiness Dalai Lama is in the coastal city of US to be part of the five-day lecture series on spirituality. During the 13-day tour, he is believed to visit New York and Michigan as well. China’s crackdown on Tibet has led to protests from all over the world including the US.

 

People close to Dalai Lama have not as yet ruled out any meeting with the US politicians or any discussions on the situation of turmoil in Tibet. The US House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday, 9 April 2008 passed separate resolutions, condemning China’s crackdown on Tibet and urged the Chinese government to initiate direct dialogue with Dalai Lama.

 

Mary Beth Markey, Vice-President for International campaign for Tibet, remarked that the spiritual leader’s visit to the US was long planned before the crisis in Tibet. The Nobel laureate is supposed to receive an honorary degree on Monday, 14 April 2008 from the University of Washington. On a stopover at Tokyo on his way to Seattle on Thursday, Dalai Lama renewed his support for the Beijing Olympics in August and urged China to not to snub him as a demon.