Published by World Tibet Network News - Monday, March 24, 1997

TAINAN, Taiwan, March 23 (AFP) - The Dalai Lama Sunday led devoted followers in solemn prayers for peace, as thousands of Taiwanese of all ages braved the rain to receive a blessing from the god-king.

In marked contrast to the flag-waving, clamour and protests on his arrival Saturday at the start of his unprecedented six-day visit to Taiwan, the crowds mainly stood patiently waiting to hear the Tibetan spiritual leader speak.

From the outset, both the Dalai Lama and the Taiwan government have stressed his visit is religious and not political.

But the meeting bringing together for the first time China's two arch foes is heavily layered in symbolism.

The office of President Lee Teng-hui finally confirmed after much drawn-out speculation that he would meet with the Dalai Lama Thursday, just before the Buddhist leader leaves the island.

The move is sure to infuriate Beijing, which has stepped up attacks on the two, accusing them on Saturday of "colluding ... and going further down the path of splitting the motherland."

But steering well clear of politics and emphasising the pastoral nature of the trip, the Dalai Lama Sunday visited two temples in southern Taiwan.

At the first, some 3,000 devoted followers, some walking with crutches or in wheelchairs, stood outside the five-storey temple with their hands clasped in prayer and devotion chanting a six-word Tibetan mantra.

Outside the Karma Kagyud Gankar Dechenling temple in the southern city of Tainan, Tibetan monks wearing traditional dress and hats and playing woodwind instruments formed a guard of honour for the spiritual leader.

Buddhists comprise the largest religious group on the island, with about six million following the teachings of Buddha out of the 21 million population. Followers consider the Dalai Lama their god-king and the 14th reincarnation of the first Dalai Lama.

After a private ceremony at which chanting monks burned pine branches, on which they sprinkled rice, the Dalai Lama led prayers from a second floor balcony and blessed the crowds.

Speaking in Tibetan, he repeated his message of peace and harmony and urged the crowd to help the poor and behave with kindness towards others.

"I ask the different sects of Buddhism to work together and coordinate so they can help disciples," he said.

One monk, who was a former US university professor, said: "This is a great event for the local people. The Dalai Lama is a great religious leader."

The monk, who identified himself by his Chinese name Ting Tali, said he had first visited the temple in 1995 before he converted to Buddhism and knew something special would happen there.

Another follower, Wyan Mei-ching, a worker in a Taiwan prosecutors office, was also overawed at having seen the Buddhist leader.

"I admire the Dalai Lama very much," she said. The Dalai Lama then left Tainan, 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of Taipei, for the Kuangteh temple in Ah Lien, in Kaohsiung county, where he planted a linden tree sapling, seen by Buddhists as the tree of wisdom.

Later Sunday the Dalai Lama was to address a huge prayer meeting at Kaohsiung stadium to be attended by more than 40,000 people due to start at around 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) according to a revised schedule.

Later in the evening he was due to receive an honorary doctorate at Chungshan University.

In the evening he was to fly to Taipei, where he will be staying at the Howard Plaza Hotel. Monday he was due to meet with religious leaders, as well as hold a press conference and meet Tibetan residents.

There are 500,000 followers of Tibetan Buddhism living on the island. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 when Chinese troops violently suppressed an uprising against Chinese rule, imposed eight years earlier.

China has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since the nationalists were driven here in 1949 following a civil war by the communists led by Mao Zedong.