Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has received an international human rights award in Slovakia, for his promotion of human rights and his leadership in the nonviolent campaign by Tibetans seeking autonomy from China.
The Jan Langos Foundation honored the Dalai Lama Wednesday at a ceremony in a Bratislava theater, after receiving award the Dalai Lama said he considers the prize "new encouragement" for his efforts to find a "mutually agreeable solution" for China and Tibet.
The Jan Langos award for human rights is named for a former dissident who, in 1989, became then Czechoslovakia's interior minister and opened up the files of the communist-era security police. Langos died in 2006.
The Dalai Lama has no plans to meet with Prime Minister Robert Fico or any other senior Slovak officials.
The exiled leader is scheduled to leave Bratislava and travel to the neighboring Czech Republic Thursday.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and DPA.