The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet's Buddhists, arrived in Ottawa on Sunday at the start of a visit to Canada that will include a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Tenzin Gyatso, a 72-year-old Buddhist monk who is the 14th Dalai Lama, addressed a sold-out crowd of 5,000 people at the Ottawa Civic Centre for two hours on Sunday afternoon.

The Dalai Lama offers a white scarf, called a kata, as he is greeted by Senator Con Di Nino, co-chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, upon his arrival at the Ottawa International Airport on Sunday.
(Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The Dalai Lama spoke about his meeting last week with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington. He said he found Bush to be a likable man but that he has some "reservations" about his policies, particularly on the war in Iraq.

Some observers have speculated that the spiritual leader's meeting on Monday with Harper on Parliament Hill could hurt relations between Canada and China. Chinese authorities have said they see any public meeting between the Dalai Lama and political leaders as interfering in China's affairs.

The country invaded Tibet shortly after the 1949 Chinese Revolution. It considers the Dalai Lama an agitator with secessionist ambitions for Tibet. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

During the Dalai Lama's last visit to Canada, in 2006, Chinese officials protested when Parliament decided to grant him honorary Canadian citizenship.

"Since the late 1980s, the Dalai Lama has clearly expressed his view that all Tibetans want is cultural and religious autonomy under Chinese sovereignty," said Jacob Kovalio, a professor of Asian history at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Foreign leaders have shown they are increasingly willing to risk discord with Beijing to underscore concerns for human rights in Tibet, he told CBC Newsworld on Sunday.

"Canada is saying to China, like many other nations — for example, India — that human rights [and] religious freedom are important, and that there is such a field for which China has to adjust itself to the international community instead of imposing the kind of approaches which simply don't fit the times," Kovalio said.

Paul Martin was the first Canadian prime minister to meet with the Dalai Lama in 2004 in what was described as a politically neutral setting, the home of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ottawa.

The spiritual leader's latest visit to Canada caps a multi-country tour that has taken him to the United States, Europe and Australia.

Last week, Bush met with him privately in the White House and before Congress, when the monk received Congress's highest civilian honour, the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to travel to Toronto on Tuesday, where he will hold a public talk Wednesday night on "The Art of Happiness" at Rogers Centre.

With files from the Canadian Press