Tibetan spiritual leader arrives in Melbourne

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Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Thursday arrived in Melbourne from New Zealand. Many of Dalai Lama’s devotees greeted him and wore traditional Tibetan clothing and waved flags.

The 75-year-old Dalai Lama will spend 11 days in Australia, giving public lectures and meeting political leaders.

He is also expected to meet the federal Opposition leader, Tony Abbott and the Greens leader, Bob Brown, in Canberra next week, media reports said.

Reports said that his meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard was unlikely.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had turned down a meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2009.

Gillard has come under fire for failing to commit to a meeting with the religious leader.

The Australia Tibet Council on Thursday called for the PM to lock in a meeting with the ageing Buddhist despite the diplomatic tensions that might cause with China.

The not-for-profit advocacy group said the Dalai Lama was a revered religious leader and a champion of human rights.

Organisers of the trip said all those who lost family members in Queensland’s floods and during Cyclone Yasi have been invited to meet him.

It is the Buddhist leader’s eighth trip to Australia and the last before he will step down as Tibet’s defacto political leader to focus on spiritual affairs.