Dalai Lama arrives for 5-day visit to Germany

This time, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader will not be meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on a trip to Latin America.

Instead, his trip is largely a speaking tour sprinkled with meetings with politicians. He plans to give four lectures -in Nuremberg, Bamberg, Bochum and Moenchengladbach -and a final speech Monday in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate will also meet two state governors from Merkel's conservative party -starting Thursday with Hesse's Roland Koch and then North Rhine-Westphalia's Juergen Ruettgers -as well as Norbert Lammert, president of Germany's parliament.

China, which claims Tibet has been its territory for centuries, protests such meetings between foreign governments and the Dalai Lama. China has ruled the Himalayan region with a heavy hand since its communist-led forces invaded in 1959.

Upon his arrival in Germany, the Dalai Lama reiterated that what he sought was "real autonomy" for Tibet and suggested that his land and China shared a "universal heritage."

"We are not seeking independence," he said at a news conference with Koch.

China claims Tibet has been its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say they have been effectively independent for most of that period.

Protests started March 10 in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Events turned violent four days later, touching off demonstrations among Tibetans in three neighboring provinces.

But the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany comes after China held informal talks with his representatives about the crackdown in Tibet. Koch hailed those talks as a success, and said that he hoped "that we can get results" from them soon.