Dalai Lama brushes off Chinese anger over US award

The Dalai Lama today brushed aside China’s furious reaction to his receiving a prestigious award from US President George Bush, saying he rejected Tibetan independence and was eager to meet leaders in Beijing.

Speaking a day after he received Congress’s highest civilian honour in an elaborate public ceremony, the exiled spiritual head of Tibet’s Buddhists repeated his stance that Tibet should have “genuine autonomy,” not independence.