"Let me take this opportunity to once again appeal to the Chinese leadership to recognise the grave problems in Tibet, the genuine grievances and deep resentments of the Tibetan people inside Tibet, and to have the courage and the wisdom to address these problems realistically in a spirit of reconciliation," Dalai Lama said.

Earlier, China had criticised the US decision to confer the medal to Dalai Lama. "The words and deeds of Dalai Lama in the past decades show he is a political refugee engaging in secessionist activities in the camouflage of religion," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

"Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and the Tibet issue is purely China's internal affair," he added.

Image: The Dalai Lama with Nobel prize winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel

Photographs: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images