Dalai Lama envoys visit Tibet

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959

LHASA, Tibet (CNN) -- Envoys of the exiled Dalai Lama were in Tibet for the first time in 20 years Monday, a Tibetan government spokesman said.

No other details of the visit were made available.

Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen -- representatives of the Dalai Lama -- began their visit in Beijing last week according to a statement from the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala, India.

"His holiness the Dalai Lama is very pleased that the team is able to make such a visit," the statement said.

Beijing's description of the delegation as a private, fact-finding mission appeared designed to downplay the significance of the visit and dodge questions about its nature, including the possibility that China's leadership and the exiled Tibetan government are trying to reach consensus on the future of the Himalayan region.

Last week the Tibetan envoys visited Beijing, the first official contact with the Chinese government in almost 10 years.

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In the past China has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to wrest control away from the "motherland."

Earlier, a spokesman for the Chinese government said the Tibetans would meet with a "broad range" of people in Tibet, however he declined to say whether they would meet Communist Party officials or other officials.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, and in 1959 the Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The Chinese government says communism liberated the Tibetans from a feudal theocracy led by the Dalai Lama and that Tibet has developed considerably under their rule.

Others have claimed human rights abuses, as well as cultural and ecological destruction.

The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his peaceful campaign for Tibetan autonomy.

-- CNN correspondent Lisa Rose Weaver contributed to this report