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Dalai Lama leaves for US, to meet President Obama

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

The Dalai Lama waves to people from inside his car as he leaves for the US on 16 February 2010. The Dalai Lama will meet with President Barack Obama on 18 February, after which he will travel to Los Angeles, California, and Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach in Florida for lectures and teachings.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, the Dalai Lama, left Mcleod Ganj for Delhi on Tuesday to go to the United States, where he will meet President Barack Obama on Thursday.

The Dalai Lama waved at the well wishers from inside his car as they stood on the roadside with traditional scarf, incense and flowers to see him off.

Obama will meet the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House. US presidents normally meet VIPs and government heads in the Oval Office.

He avoided meeting the Tibetan leader last year until after he has made his first visit to China in an apparent bid to set relations with Beijing on a good footing in the first year of his presidency.

China has urged the US to cancel the meeting, saying it would damage relations between Beijing and Washington.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against the Chinese invasion of his homeland in 1959, has met Obama before when he was a senator in 2005.

After the meeting with the president in Washington DC, the Dalai Lama will travel to Los Angeles, California, and Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach in Florida for lectures and teachings.

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