By Narayanan Madhavan

NEW DELHI, Sept 17 (Reuter) - Soft-spoken, ever-smiling and courteous, the Dalai Lama defies the stereotype of a leader heading a political uprising.

But the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist monk, Tibet's spiritual god-king, has time and again braved strong-arm measures by Chinese authorities in a quest to win autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

A low-profile visit by the Dalai Lama to Australia brought the two nations to the brink of a trade dispute on Tuesday as Beijing warned that any foreign leaders who met Tibet's exiled spiritual leader would see trade and business trades suffer.

But Australian Prime Minister John Howard was defiant and said he would meet the exiled Tibetan leader and 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner in Australia next week if schedules permit.

Last June, the Dalai Lama formed a new Tibetan government- in-exile at Dharamshala, a 1,800-metre (5,900-foot) high town in the Himalayas in India.

The Dalai Lama has lived in the town since fleeing to India with thousands of followers after a Tibetan uprising in 1959. The uprising came nine years after Communist troops entered Tibet and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy in power.

He reached India after a dramatic 1,600-mile (2,560-km) flight from Lhasa over rivers, dusty plains and the Himalayas.

More than 100,000 Tibetan exiles now live in India, forming the backbone of the Dalai Lama's non-violent movement.

"Non-violence is my principal belief, and also under the present circumstances, non-violence is the most effective method," the Dalai Lama told Reuters in an interview last year.

In March, the Dalai Lama provoked Beijing's anger when he said democratic elections in Taiwan would inspire a democratic upsurge in communist China.

Last year, he led a protest against Beijing's decision to anoint a six-year-old boy as the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second highest figure, as a rival to another boy identified by the Dalai Lama as a spiritual successor.

China saw the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Dalai Lama in 1989 as a Western plot to return Tibet to feudal rule.

Controversy rages over the degree of Tibet's political independence from China in recent centuries. Beijing stakes its claim of sovereignty back to the 13th century when Mongol hordes held sway over large parts of Asia.

Beijing charges the Dalai Lama is not a religious representative but a political activist trying to split China.

The Dalai Lama, clad in maroon and saffron robes, sees himself as "a simple Buddhist monk, no more, no less." But his frequent travels have won him support across the world.

Differences between China and the Dalai Lama appeared to narrow in 1988 when he effectively tempered his calls for Tibetan independence by proposing a plan for genuine autonomy.

Indirect contacts through the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, however, failed to progress and ground to a halt after Chinese troops suppressed student democracy protests in Tibet that led to 16 people being killed in March 1989.

The present Dalai Lama, a spiritual title, was born Lhamo Dhondrub, sometimes spelled Lhamo Thondup, on July 6, 1935, into a peasant farming family, in Chinghai on the border with China.

The previous Dalai Lama had died in 1933.

At the age of two and a half he was recognised by monks visiting his village as the 14th reincarnation of Chenresig, "the personification of Buddha's compassion," and was formally recognised at the age of four and a half.

He was enthroned as Dalai Lama on February 22, 1940, in the 1,000-room Potala Palace overlooking Lhasa city.

Two regents ruled in his place until he assumed full state powers at the age of 15 on November 17, 1950.

When the Chinese troops entered Tibet, the Dalai Lama sought refuge on the Tibet-Sikkim border in the Himalayas, but returned under a 1951 Sino-Tibetan accord to Lhasa.

But his cabinet denounced the treaty in 1959, triggering his eventual flight to India and the start of his long struggle.

"I feel that although at the moment the situation is very, very serious,...I feel that in a few years time I think the situation will change. So I am hopeful," the Dalai Lama told Reuters last year.