The Lord Mayor of Belfast has rejected the "peace and love" message to be spread by the Dalai Lama when he visits Northern Ireland next week.
Mr Sammy Wilson, a DUP Assembly member, said the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people did not have a "magic formula" to bring an end to years of conflict in the North. "If there was a magic wand we would have waved it a long time ago," he said.
Mr Wilson said he thought many people in Belfast would be cynical about the Dalai Lama's visit - if they had ever heard of him.
"I don't think many people in Belfast know who the Dalai Lama is. I don't know anything about the man or his teachings and I've never had much of an interest in the affairs of his country," he said.
"I think I know human nature too well. There's maybe people not in touch with reality who think if they preach peace and love to people they'll behave like that. I think people can afford to be a bit cynical. I certainly am."
The Dalai Lama will spend three days in Northern Ireland at the invitation of the World Community of Christian Meditation, which is hosting a "Way of Peace" seminar. The seminar is described as the final phase of a joint programme of pilgrimage and dialogue between Christians and Buddhists.
He will cross the peace line dividing the nationalist and loyalist communities in Belfast and plant a "symbolic tree" at Lanark Way.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, will also attend a youth conference in Belfast on the theme, "Non-violence Works", and deliver the annual Northern Ireland Amnesty International Lecture.
