Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has been granted honorary Canadian citizenship.
Canadian Immigration Minister Monte Solberg presented the Nobel Peace laureate with the honor in Vancouver Saturday in front of a crowd of 12-thousand supporters.
Beijing has formally complained about the Canadian parliament's decision to grant the Dalai Lama citizenship.
Beijing has long condemned the Dalai Lama as an enemy of Chinese national unity, because of his repeated demands for greater autonomy for Tibet. China says it strongly opposes any country's offer to give the Buddhist leader a stage for what it considers his separatist activities.
The Dalai Lama left his homeland in 1959 after Chinese troops suppressed an uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.
While in Vancouver, the Dalai Lama gave a series of talks and promoted the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.
Canada also has granted honorary citizenship to humanitarian leader Nelson Mandela of South African and Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden. Wallenberg helped Jews escape death during World War Two.
གཟའ་ཕུར་བུ། ༢༠༢༤/༠༤/༢༥