By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine

A US president is again choosing to meet the Dalai Lama despite Chinese opposition. But why is this Tibetan spiritual and political leader such a popular figure in the West?

To the Chinese government and to many of its people he is an inciter of violence and a defender of a brutal, backward, feudalistic, theocratic society.

But to many politicians and people in the West, the Dalai Lama is a kind of smiling, spiritual and political superhero.

His monastic robes, beaming countenance and squarish, unfashionable glasses are the stuff of a thousand photo opportunities. To some he is in a league of international personalities that contains only one other person - Nelson Mandela.

DALAI LAMA - KEY EVENTS Born Tenzin Gyatso in 1935 Designated 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama in 1937 Enthroned in 1940, but his rights exercised by regency until 1950 - the year Chinese troops entered Tibet Forced into permanent exile in 1959 after China's suppression of Tibetan national uprising Settled with other Tibetan refugees at Dharamsala, northern India Has since refused to return to Tibet Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1989

He is well-known for his contact with Hollywood supporters like Richard Gere and Steven Segal.

Those who have met him describe an intense personal charisma.

There is a "wonderful smiling face, cherubic looks, the infectious laugh" says Alexander Norman, who co-operated with the Dalai Lama on his autobiography as well as several other works after first meeting him in 1988.

It is hard to escape the idea that the Dalai Lama is perceived almost as an avuncular "Santa Claus" figure by some, says Dr Nathan Hill, senior lecturer in Tibetan at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

"He is very photogenic. In the West we like stars. He is an extremely engaging person, and an extremely smart man. I find him extremely savvy politically, very forward looking."

There are many in the West who are seeking an unthreatening spiritual boost in an age of materialism, suggests Norman, who recently wrote The Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama.

"There is a huge desire in the secular West… a hunger for something other than the benefits that modern industrial society can supply."

Search on Amazon for the Dalai Lama's books and you see long lists of spiritual and self-help tracts.

"He is unstained by the world [to some readers]," says Dr Hill. "You want to read his books in order to find enlightenment yourself."

Tibetan mystique

And the appreciation of the Dalai Lama taps into some older Western ideas about Tibet as a remote Shangri-La.

"Tibet had a policy from 1792-1903 not to allow Westerners into the country," says Dr Hill. "That fostered a mystique. We have this nation that was almost completely closed to white people.

Friend to the stars, including Hollywood actor and Buddhist Richard Gere

"When you start to get more information you get the notion of Tibet as a mystical hidden land of magic and wonder. It is a kind of product of European adventure travel literature."

There is a sense that the Dalai Lama is politically extrapolated in a way that may not be totally grounded in reality.

"He is a sort of pin-up boy for a lot of movements - the animal rights movement, religious syncretism," says Norman. "There is a lot of wishful thinking that goes on in connection with the Dalai Lama."

Western confusion over the Dalai Lama is best illustrated by the attempts to analyse his position on gay rights.

He has expressed an aversion to gay sex, and even oral sex among heterosexual couples, and yet at other times has taken a more nuanced line, says Norman.

"He will say it's your choice, it's up to people's own conscience. He is very conscious of not giving people offence."

There is criticism of him from some Tibetan exiles for sticking to a moderate, non-violent stance, says Norman. There has also been criticism from religious opponents who say he has wrongly proscribed worship of a deity called Shugden.

Starry-eyed admirers

"Among exiles there is an increasingly vocal minority that opposes him, but it's a small minority," says Robert Barnett, director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University.

The Dalai Lama is a wolf wrapped in a habit, a monster with human face and animal's heart Widely reported translation of comments by Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party Secretary in Tibet

"Inside Tibet there is near universal admiration for him, and for his attempts to get a non-violent solution."

There is discussion about whether the Dalai Lama and his colleagues paint an accurate picture of Tibet before the Chinese intervention in 1950, or whether any mythology is the invention of Western admirers.

There is even a belief among some starry-eyed admirers in a pre-1950 Tibet where "women enjoyed equal rights and everyone was in harmony with the environment", says Dr Hill.

But the blame for any mythologising cannot be laid entirely at the door of the Dalai Lama, says Norman.

"On the one hand you could accuse him of peddling an unrealistic picture of what Tibet was actually like. On the other hand Tibetans genuinely think of their country in those terms - this romantic image."

Chinese criticism of the Dalai Lama, while predominantly concerned with the idea that Tibet is historically part of China, also lambasts the idea of a pre-1950 Shangri-La and focuses on serfdom, and poor living conditions.

"The Dalai Lama has been one of the harshest critics of 'old Tibet'," says Donald Lopez, Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan.

Cup of tea diplomacy

"He is not a purveyor of the Shangri-La Syndrome. There is evidence that he would have introduced political reforms if the Chinese had not invaded."

Unafraid to see the funny side of himself

And the idea that the Westerners who venerate the Dalai Lama are unaware of the complexities of the Tibet Question is false, despite it being "very fashionable" says Prof Barnett.

Tibet's place at the junction of three nuclear powers and with a key part in the world's water supply will always make the Tibet Question more than a Western liberal hobby horse.

There is a clear rationale for the political leaders who meet him despite Chinese pressure. For those who feel uncomfortable about Chinese human rights abuses it is a chance to irritate China without risking a full-on diplomatic incident.

"[The Dalai Lama] is an ideal opportunity for them, because as a political leader, he asks for very little - he seems quite happy to accept a merely symbolic gesture like a cup of tea and a photo," says Prof Barnett.

"The more China complains, the more Western leaders look strong and principled when they meet him."

It is perhaps understandable that he has met every serving US president since 1991.

But to ordinary people, whether right or wrong, the Dalai Lama's box office appeal is more about the charisma of the man and the ideas that they believe he is sympathetic to.

As Norman notes his Western fans see a "secular saint" or a "politically correct god for a godless world".