KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan March 22 (Reuter) -- Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, arrived in Taiwan to a politically charged welcome on Saturday but dodged questions over China's virulent opposition to his unprecedented visit.

As hundreds of protesters either favoring or opposing independence for Tibet and Taiwan chanted and scuffled outside, the Tibetan Buddhist god-king said he was happy to finally set foot in Taiwan, home of millions of Buddhists.

He said he looked forward to a controversial meeting with Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui as long as it caused Lee no embarrassment.

But the ochre-robed spiritual leader declined comment on the political uproar surrounding his six-day visit before ducking into a black Cadillac to drive to the Fukuangshan Temple, or Mountain of Buddha's Light, outside the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

Beijing has assailed his visit and particularly the expected March 27 meeting with Lee as collusion between "splittists" seeking independence for both Tibet and Nationalist-ruled Taiwan.

"I think we can discuss this later," the Dalai Lama said with a laugh.

This is the Dalai Lama's first visit to Chinese territory since he and thousands of followers fled his Himalayan homeland in 1959 after the failure of an anti-Chinese uprising.

Tibetan Buddhism's highest ranking monk did have some admonishing words for Taiwan, cautioning that the rapidly developing island was too focused on wealth and materialism at the expense of spiritual attainment.

"Wherever I go I always try to promote this human value human affection, human sense of caring and a sense of responsibility. If humanity becomes without human deeper value, I believe that is a disaster," the Dalai Lama said on arrival.

"I believe, like in Taiwan, material prosperity is very much developed ... but there is also the possibility to neglect this deeper inner value."

While the Dalai Lama and his hosts have insisted that the visit was strictly religious, it has stoked local political passions, with advocates of Taiwan's total independence from China trying to marshal the Dalai Lama to their cause.

The exiled Republic of China government, which fled the mainland for Taiwan after losing a 1949 civil war to the Chinese communists, maintains that Taiwan should one day reunite with China, but only after Beijing becomes democratic.

But the democracy and political openness that has flowered on Taiwan since the late 1980s has given voice to long-suppressed yearnings among native Taiwanese for a sovereign Republic of Taiwan.

The calls have infuriated Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a rebel-held province that must be "reunified with the motherland."

Forces from both sides of the Taiwan independence question took to the streets outside Kaohsiung's airport on Saturday, noisily chanting and marching.

Only a few shoving matches marred the colorful protests as police with night sticks kept the various factions apart.

Taiwan's pro-unification Labor Party accused the Dalai Lama, revered as a Buddhist god-king in Tibet, of disguising a political visit as a religious one.