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His picture is as common in Tibet as Mao Zedong's is in other parts of China. His broad, square face, often wearing a slight, mysterious smile, looks down from the walls of teahouses and temples, shops and restaurants, even nightclubs.

Tibetans work on a construction site as laborers making no more than $235 a month.(Goh Chai Hin, AFP)

Envoys of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, have requested a third trip to Beijing and are awaiting a reply from the Chinese government, special envoy Lodi Gyari has told Radio Free Asia.

On his 15th trip to the United States, the Dalai Lama has been met by sold-out crowds from coast to coast, and tickets to his events were bid up on eBay. He filled Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and on Sept. 11 packed Washington National Cathedral

Jaime FlorCruz

It's been nine years since a CNN crew was last allowed into Tibet. This time we had to join a group of reporters for an officially organized tour. Our group was accompanied by Chinese government guides, but CNN had some limited freedom to work independently.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the world's leading advocates of nonviolence, said in an interview that it might be necessary to fight terrorists with violence, and that it was "too early to say" whether the Iraq war is a mistake.

During the Dalai Lama's recent visit here, an encounter took place that could open the way to a mutual resolution of the tragedy Tibetans have suffered under Chinese rule. In an icebreaking dialogue at Harvard University Monday morning

The European Commission has said that ensuring genuine autonomy to Tibet by encouraging China and the Dalai Lama to strengthen their ongoing contact through mutually acceptable solution would be one of their political priorities.

The Dalai Lama, center, is joined by actor Richard Gere, left, and composer Philip Glass at a news coference at New York's Guggenheim Museum, Tuesday Sept. 16, 2003. The exiled Tibetan leader will teach for four days in New York, including a free lecture in Central Park. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)