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The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, traveled nearly 12,000 kilometres south of his home in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, this week, to New Zealand.
The Maori-style reception the revered leader received from Dick Hubbard, Auckland's mayor, was perhaps warmer than the greeting he received -- or did not receive -- elsewhere. The Maori way of rubbing noses is not exactly close to the solemn Tibetan bow though.
New Zealand is in the process of negotiating a free trade agreement with China and hosting the Dalai Lama was an especially ticklish issue for Prime Minister Helen Clark's government.
Unlike her Aussie counterpart John Howard -- who ducked out of sight and refused to meet His Holiness for fear of inciting the Chinese -- Prime Minister Clark opted to meet the Dalai Lama, who turns 72 on July 6.
Clark cleverly chose to meet His Holiness in Australia, rather than offer him a formal reception in New Zealand, which led a New Zealand Herald columnist to caustically remark, 'It must have been karma when the prime minister managed to accidentally run into the Dalai Lama at Brisbane airport last week. She was quick to assure us publicly "it was pure chance" and that they did not discuss any political issues. The Dalai Lama's visit had been scheduled for months. Why was everyone suddenly busy washing their hair?'
Australian leaders avoid Dalai Lama
During his three-day visit, the Dalai Lama addressed the Press Club in Wellington, delivered a speech on peace and met the heads of New Zealand's political parties including the Green Party.
Sir Edmund Hillary -- the first man to climb Mount Everest; the Chinese are shockingly building a route to the world's highest peak in time for the 2008 Olympics -- attended one of the Dalai Lama's engagements, despite a recent illness.
Photograph: Sandra Mu/Getty Images