Baden-Baden, Germany  - The Dalai Lama warned in Germany Tuesday that Tibetan culture was in peril under Chinese rule.

"When narrow-minded Chinese officials portray Tibetan beliefs and our cultural heritage as a threat, the Tibetan people hear a death sentence," he said as he received an award from a German audience research company, Media Control, in the city of Baden-Baden.

The spiritual leader in exile, 73, insisted Tibetans were not trying to break away from China.

"We are not a threat, but an asset to China," he said at a ceremony attended by 600 German business and media celebrities.

The Dalai Lama, who earlier visited Rome, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Roland Koch, premier of the German state of Hesse and a supporter of the Dalai Lama, said, "One of the biggest mistakes of the Chinese government is to believe that the death of the Dalai Lama will provide an opportunity to pacify the Tibetan people.

"The exact opposite is true," he said in Baden-Baden.

Karlheinz Koegel, Media Control's chief, said the German Media Prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama for winning worldwide awareness. dpa