Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, ended his visit to Denmark Sunday and left for Iceland, his first visit ever to the Nordic country.
Before his departure, the Dalai Lama told the French News Agency that his Denmark visit was not political, but mainly spiritual and educational.
But his European tour, which will also take him to the Netherlands and France, has angered Chinese authorities.
On Saturday, Beijing condemned meetings between the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and Danish government officials in Copenhagen.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying China was "strongly dissatisfied" with the meetings. The spokesman said the meetings "severely harmed" China-Denmark relations, and he urged Copenhagen to "take concrete actions to correct its wrongdoings" on Tibet-related issues.
The Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled to India in 1959, during a failed revolt against Chinese rule in Tibet. He has been struggling to gain autonomy for Tibet since then.
Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of separatism and demands that he give up what it says are aspirations for independence. He denies the charges.
The Dalai Lama's emissaries and the communist government in Beijing have held a series of direct talks since 2002, but no substantial progress has been achieved.
གཟའ་མིག་དམར། ༢༠༢༤/༠༤/༢༣