Dalai Lama Meets Obama, Larry King

Who doesn't love the Dalai Lama? (Well, besides the Chinese government....) According to CNN, the 74-year-old spiritual leader of Tibet and the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile is one of the world's most influential people, and it's not hard at all to find people who will gush about him.

"I'd love to be in his presence. I'd love to be in an audience where he speaks," Jerilee Auclair, 55, told CNN. "I yearn for it."

During His Holiness's visit to the US this week and last, President Obama and Larry King have had the pleasure of being in his presence.

Obama received the Dalai Lama Feb. 18 in a low-key, closed-door meeting. The visit was kept relatively quiet in an attempt to help Obama keep on China's good side.

The Dalai Lama told the Associated Press that he understands Obama's need to downplay their relationship. "No disappointment," he said. "The last six decades my heart hardened. I do not consider important political gestures. I don't care. The important is [to] meet face-to-face."

Face-to-face it was, as was his on-camera meeting on "Larry King Live," where he spoke candidly about Tibetan relations with China. "Actually, we are not seeking independence," he said to King. "We complain the present policy in Tibet. It is actually very much damaging about Tibetan religious freedom and cultural heritage.... But other hand, we also do not want separation from China because Tibet, landlocked country, materially backward. Every Tibetan want modernize Tibet. So for that reason remain within the People's Republic of China."

While China is not convinced that the Dalai Lama has such peaceable intentions, people in the US continue to revere him. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll revealed that 56 percent of Americans see him in a favorable light.

Photo by White House via wikimedia.