Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper thanks the Dalai Lama after exchanging Katas prior to their meeting on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa Monday Oct. 29, 2007. (CP / Tom Hanson)

 

For the first time in Canadian history the prime minister has held an official meeting with the Dalai Lama, and a Chinese official called it a "blatant interference in China's internal affairs."

While the two didn't discuss Canada's military operations in Afghanistan, the Tibetan spiritual leader earlier met with Conservative MP Jason Kenney and warned that violence can escalate conflicts.

"Using violence to counter violence, sometimes it creates more complicated" situations, the Dalai Lama said.

"Violence, you see, controls the physical, not the mind. Your mind can change through reason, through affection."

	The Dalai Lama acknowledges followers as an RCMP officer salutes upon his arrival on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday, Oct 29, 2007. (CP / Tom Hanson)
	The Dalai Lama receives a gift from Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Yvon Brault and Sgt. Monique Beauchamp upon his arrival on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa Monday Oct 29, 2007. (CP / Tom Hanson)
	The Dalai Lama (centre) arrives under the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Monday, October 29, 2007. (CP / Fred Chartrand)
	The Dalai Lama of Tibet offers a white scarf, called a kata, as he is greeted by Senator Con di Nino, co-chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, as he arrives at the Ottawa International Airport. (CP / Sean Kilpatrick)

The Dalai Lama has visited Canada at least six times, but has never had a formal meeting with a Canadian prime minister at a government office.

"When he came here before, he was given almost rapturous welcomes by people of faith, people from the Tibetan community and by people who were interested in Asia altogether. But the governments of the day wouldn't receive him properly," Diana Lary, a professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in modern Chinese history, told CTV Newsnet.

"The Liberals under Jean Chretien didn't receive him at all. Later on, under Paul Martin, he was received but in private, as one person of faith meeting another. It wasn't an official reception."

Martin met with the Dalai Lama for about an hour in 2004. But they met at the Ottawa home of a Roman Catholic Archbishop, not on Parliament Hill.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke with the Dalai Lama for about 40 minutes in his office. The two men exchanged white Tibetan silk scarves called "khata," the one intended for the Dalai Lama embroidered with the Canadian maple leaf.

Earlier, the Dalai Lama had said the meeting would be significant simply because it would take place, not because it was official.

"The importance is in meeting the person and that's what I consider most important," the Dalai Lama said.

"So, whether I'm meeting the prime minister in his office or at a private house, it doesn't matter so long as we're meeting."

He also praised Canada for its multiculturalism saying that the Chinese leadership should learn from "the promotion of unity based on mutual respect."

"I always admire this country, the multi-racial, the multi-culture and multi-religions, particularly, the way you call the native people First Nations," he said.

"These things I feel are a good model to the rest of the world where some ethnic groups are in trouble. So respect each other and work together as one country."

China warns of repercussions

Sun Lushan, an official with the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, said the meeting will damage relations between China and Canada.

"It is a blatant interference in China's internal affairs and has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people," he said.

"It will greatly undermine the relationship between China and Canada."

China has often claimed the Dalai Lama wants Tibet to separate from the country. But to prove that point, the spokesperson read quotes from the Dalai lama that were nearly 20 years old, according to The Canadian Press.

During a talk to a large audience in Ottawa on Sunday, the Dalai Lama said he isn't pushing for outright Tibetan independence from China. Instead, he said he desires "meaningful autonomy" and democratic reforms, noting that there are economic benefits from being under Beijing's rule.

The 72-year-old spiritual leader is currently on a North American tour to promote Tibetan autonomy and the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

In 1949, China invaded the Himalayan nation. The following year, at the age of 16, the Dalai Lama assumed full political power as Head of State and Government in Tibet.

After a failed uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to northern India where he remains in exile.

Chinese officials are vehemently opposed to foreign leaders meeting with the Dalai Lama, claiming the Nobel laureate is a political figure and a separatist.

Beijing has publicly chastised Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for meeting with the leader.

With a report by CTV's David Akin in Ottawa