GENEVA, March 11, 1997 (Reuter) - The Dalai Lama Monday denounced what he said was increasing Chinese repression in Tibet, including torture and deaths, and said that unless Beijing's methods changed, it would be hard to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

In a message read to 1,000 supporters gathered for the start of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the spiritual leader called for negotiations with China's post-Deng Xiaoping leadership.

"Recent reports of isolated incidents of bomb explosion(s) in Tibet are a cause of deep concern to me. I will continue to counsel for non-violence, but unless the Chinese authorities forsake the brutal methods it employs, it will be difficult to prevent the situation in Tibet from deteriorating further."

"A lasting and peaceful solution can be found only through dialogue," he added.

The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate also expressed concern about the fate of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the boy he recognized as the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet's second holiest monk, and whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Speaking on the 38th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day, the Dalai Lama, in exile in India since 1959, said that Chinese measures in culture, religion and education amounted to a "policy of cultural genocide."

"As we commemorate this anniversary, we look back at yet another year of escalating repression in Tibet where the Chinese authorities continue to commit widespread and grave human rights abuses" the Dalai Lama said in his message to protesters.

"Under the 'Strike Hard' campaign launched by the Chinese authorities in April last year, Tibetans are subjected to increased torture and imprisonment for peacefully expressing their political aspirations. Political re-education conducted by the authorities in monasteries and nunneries throughout Tibet has resulted in mass expulsion, imprisonment and death."

China's reform of its religious policy, which states that Buddhism must conform to socialism and not the other way around, aims to "systematically undermine and destroy the distinct cultural and national identity of the Tibetan people" he added.

The Dalai Lama denounced new measures by the Chinese authorities to curtail the use of the Tibetan language in schools, including Tibetan history being taught in the Chinese language at Tibet University's Tibetan Language Department.

"These new measures in the field of culture, religion and education, coupled with the unabated influx of Chinese immigrants to Tibet, which has the effect of overwhelming Tibet's distinct cultural and religious identity and reducing the Tibetans to an insignificant minority in their own country, amounts to a policy of cultural genocide," he added.

In most major towns and cities, Tibetans were marginalized. "If this population transfer is allowed to continue, in a few decades Tibetan civilization will cease to exist," he said.

The demonstrators, brandishing signs reading "Freedom for Tibet," "China Tortures Tibet" and "Independence is a Birthright," were blocked from handing over a petition to China's diplomatic mission demanding fundamental rights.

"China's mission would not open its door to the Tibetans. The police accompanied the Tibetans to the door, but they were not allowed to deliver the petition," a police spokesman said.

"They left it in the mailbox."

Chinese troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and quickly suppressed a major rebellion in the mountainous region in 1959 which forced the Dalai Lama and 9,000 followers to seek exile in India.

The protesters were to meet U.N. officials to lobby for release of the boy chosen as the 11th Panchen Lama.

Western rights groups have accused China of detaining Gedhun Choekyi Nyima after choosing another boy in his place as the reincarnated "soul boy" of the late 10th Panchen Lama.

But Raidi, chairman of the Tibetan People's Congress, said last Friday that the seven year old was free and living with his parents. He said he was in China but declined to be specific.

China may be criticized but not formally censured during the six-week session, not only for its activities in Tibet and for squashing dissent on the mainland, but in anticipation of its takeover of Hong Kong on July 1, according to diplomats.