Dalai Lama speaks in Auckland 

Saturday, December 05, 2009

NZPA
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His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speaks at the Vector Arena on December 5, 2009 in Auckland, New Zealand. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet is visiting New Zealand conducting Public teachings to New Zealanders.(Photo: Getty Images)

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has addressed more than 1000 people at Auckland's Vector Arena on the subject of A Peaceful Mind.

In New Zealand at the invitation of the Tibetan Buddhist community, he will hold a teaching session at the same venue on Sunday.

Labour leader Phil Goff held talks with the Dalai Lama on Friday after he arrived in the country.

But Prime Minister John Key chose not to meet him, noting they had met before and there was no need for another meeting.

Key has denied being pressured by China not to meet the Dalai Lama, but said in November "We would understand the way the Chinese would deal with these things, but on the other side of the coin that wasn't the over-riding factor."

Monks cry as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to arrive at the Vector Arena on December 5, 2009 in Auckland, New Zealand. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet is visiting New Zealand conducting Public teachings to New Zealanders.(Photo: Getty Images)

China, which has occupied Tibet since 1959, objects to senior political leaders meeting the Dalai Lama, as he represents opposition to China's occupation of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after an abortive Tibetan uprising in 1959, nine years after Chinese troops marched into the Himalayan region.