Photographs of the Dalai Lama have been banned for years in Tibet. And yet this weekend house-to-house searches began across Lhasa to confiscate images concealed in their homes by Tibetans who revere their exiled god-king.

Vilification of the monk, said to be the 14th reincarnation in a line identified in the 16th century, has been state policy in China for more than a decade. For Tibetans, however, government condemnation of the monk regarded as the incarnation of the Buddha’s body has failed to erode their faith. Even government officials yearn privately for his return. The searches this weekend began in the homes of party cadres and state employees.

In a recent visit to the Jokhang Temple, the holiest of shrines in the heart of Lhasa, thumbnail-size photographs of the Dalai Lama could be glimpsed in the dormitories of some monks. Ordinary Tibetans and young monks may sidle up to foreigners and request a picture of their temporal leader who fled into exile 49 years ago during a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Time has failed to diminish his influence among Tibetans. Many have prospered from Chinese rule but while they may say they want to keep the system that has brought them a more comfortable life, they want the return of the Dalai Lama, too.

Beijing condemns him regularly as a secessionist bent on dividing the Himalayan region from China. The Dalai Lama says that he wants only autonomy and not independence.

Among Tibetans his word remains law. Speaking in his native language, he can be severe, even prescriptive, about behaviour and beliefs. In English, he has developed a more genial style. It is a charismatic combination that has transformed him into a figure of veneration, and even of worship, around the world.

When he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 he described himself as “a simple monk from faraway Tibet”. His existence as a symbol of the struggle for freedom have won him a huge following in the West. But his position is complicated; he has been described as “a very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes”.

Yesterday, trying to tread a diplomatic line between his opponents in Beijing and young Tibetans who see him as too accommodating in his approach to China’s communist rulers, he said: “China deserves to be a host of the Olympic Games.” And then he added that Beijing needed to be “reminded to be a good host”.

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