President Obama met on Thursday with the Dalai Lama for a low-profile meeting at the White House .
After the meeting the Dalai Lama told reporters that the two men talked about human values.
In a statement the White House said that Mr. Obama had expressed support for the preservation of Tibet’s “unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity”.
Thursday’s meeting, for instance, took place in the White House Map Room, and not the Oval Office—the administration also announced that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would also meet with the Dalai Lama later at the State Department.
“The Dalai Lama is a Nobel Peace Price laureate, internationally revered religious and cultural leader and the secretary will meet him in this capacity as recent Secretaries of State have done,” said a State Department spokesman, Mark Toner.
White House officials had said they would keep the visit low-key, releasing a photo after the meeting between the Dalai Lama and Mr. Obama. But there was no joint public appearance.
American presidents, in deference to China, usually do not meet publicly with the Tibetan spiritual leader. President George W. Bush broke with that tradition back in 2007, though, when Mr. Bush attended a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in which Congress bestowed upon the Dalai Lama its highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Dossier Tibet