A young Buddhist lama who fled from Tibet last month has begun giving public audiences in the Indian monastery where he has been staying.

The start of the audiences, being held amid tight security, coincide with the Tibetan new year.

Moves are afoot to allow the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama, who is the only prominent lama to be recognised by both the Dalai Lama and China, to stay in India.

Tashi Wandgi, minister of religion in the exiled Tibetan Government, said the lama would not speak about his flight or any other issues - because he did not want to create an inconvenience to India.

There are a growing number of Tibetans arriving in Dharamsala to receive a blessing from him.

Refugee status

The self-styled Tibetan government in exile is confident the Karmapa will be allowed to remain in India with the refugee status 120,000 other Tibetans in the country have.

However Delhi has yet to give a formal ruling.

Within days of the young lama's surprise arrival in Dharamsala, which has been the Dalai Lama's headquarters since his own flight from Tibet in 1959, he went to a monastery just outside the north Indian hill station.

His flight across the Himalayas was seen by exiled Tibetans as an embarrassment for Beijing and its religious policy in Tibet.

It has also been seen as a potential new irritant between India and China as relations thaw.

Delhi has been treading cautiously and its official position is that it is waiting for China to provide information about the circumstances the lama, his elder sister and small entourage left Tibet.

The Dalai Lama's officials are confident he will be allowed to stay.

The term political asylum is being avoided.

Prolific writer

The Karmapa has already started religious studies under a specially appointed tutor.

India has not imposed any specific conditions on him but the young lama has revealed he is not pressing to go to Sikkim, the north-east Indian state where his predecessor Karmapa Lama had based himself in exile.

It borders China and Beijing has never formally accepted it as part of India.

Mr Wangdi said the young lama was in high spirits, relaxed and busy reading and showing signs of being a prolific writer.