Schwarzenegger's wife meets Dalai Lama

DHARAMSALA: Maria Shriver, an American television anchor and wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala on Saturday.

Sources in the Dalai Lama's office said Shriver's meeting "with his holiness the Dalai Lama was a courtesy call".

Shriver was in the Himachal Pradesh resort town on a two-day visit. She left in the afternoon Saturday.

On Friday, Shriver watched Tibetan monks debating at a monastery. She also visited a Tibetan children's village school. She was later escorted to a nunnery by the Dalai Lama's sister.

She went shopping in a Dharamsala bazaar, but refused to speak to the media. She left Dharamsala by road for New Delhi.

Shriver is the niece of former US president John F Kennedy.

Dharamsala is the seat of the Tibetan 'government in exile' and the Dalai Lama has made the town his home along with thousands of his followers after he fled Tibet following a failed uprising in 1959.

Hollywood star Hilary Swank was in Dharamsala some time ago for a week and was spotted only towards the end of her visit by her fans.