A majority of respondents believe the Buddhist spiritual leader should have an official welcome similar to the one offered to other religious leaders.

A few days prior to the Dalai Lama’s scheduled visit to the United States, a clear majority of Americans support a meeting between the Buddhist spiritual leader and President Barack Obama, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,004 American adults, 64 per cent of respondents agree with President Obama meeting the Dalai Lama in the U.S. Clear majorities of Democrats (65%), Republicans (59%) and Independents (63%) are in favour of this meeting.

The Chinese government has repeatedly warned that a meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama would “cause serious damage to Sino-U.S. relations.”

Almost three-in-five Americans (57%) believe the U.S. should provide an official welcome to the Dalai Lama similar to the welcome offered to other religious leaders.

Support is considerably lower for allowing the Dalai Lama to visit the U.S. without an official welcome (17%) or barring the Buddhist spiritual leader from visiting the U.S. (6%).

In all, 40 per cent of respondents say they would be “very interested” or “moderately interested” in seeing the Dalai Lama speak if he came to their town or city, while 53 per cent are “not too interested” or “not interested at all.”

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs
+604 647 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com