Prof. Zhu Feng of the Peking University said the meeting was considered as a gesture shown to the U.S. public and the international community that the current U.S. administration would pay attention to the "Tibet issue" and "sympathize" and "understand" the "government-in-exile" as previous governments did.

The Dalai Lama is a "human rights defender" in westerners' eyes and they believe human rights is the core of the "Tibet issue," Zhu said.

"Especially at a time when Obama is highly disputed in domestic politics, to abandon or delay the meeting with the Dalai Lama will, to a great extent, intensify criticism on Obama," he said.

The meeting was carried out in the Map Room in the White House instead of the Oval Office which symbolizes the presidential power.

It means, on one hand, Obama intended to tell Americans that he had "shown respect" to the Dalai Lama; on the other hand, he did not want to "offend China too much," Zhu said.

The 75-year-old Dalai Lama was originally named Lhamo Thondup, and he was conferred the title of the 14th Dalai Lama in 1940.

After launching and having failed an armed rebellion in March 1959, he fled to India and formed a so-called "Tibet government-in-exile."

In the guise of religion, the Dalai Lama has since then been involved in activities aimed to separate China and to undermine Tibet's social stability.

The U.S. declassified diplomatic archives have disclosed that the U.S. plotted and supported the 1959 armed rebellion in Tibet.

Wang Xiaobin, a scholar with the China Tibetology Research Center, said the U.S. president's meeting with the Dalai Lama was only one form of U.S. government's support to the Dalai clique.

"When China is a weak nation, western politicians do not want to see the Dalai Lama or meet him in a low-key manner; but when China becomes stronger, western heavyweights meet the Dalai Lama publicly in high profile. The motive is obvious," Wang said.

"The Dalai Lama's meeting with western state heads aims to 'drape himself in a tiger-skin to intimidate people'," Du said.

He said the Dalai Lama used the West as his "patron" to seek financial support for his "Tibet Independence" cause, to keep the "Tibet issue" a hot topic and attract people's attention to the issue and increase his bargaining counters in contacts and talks with the central government.