President Bush next week will ratchet up his administration’s pressure on the Burmese military junta over its brutal crackdown on demonstrators when he awards a Congressional Gold Medal to the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama.

The ceremony, to be held on the West Lawn of the Capitol, is expected to attract thousands of supporters of the Dalai Lama and the Burmese protesters. It is likely also to be attended by the first lady.

Laura Bush is a vehement critic of the Burmese regime and a devotee of the Burmese democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and she has called on the military rulers to stand down without delay to make way for democracy and the application of human rights.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the spiritual leader of world Buddhism, has been outspoken in his opposition to the Burmese military’s crackdown on Buddhist monks demonstrating on the streets of Rangoon.

On Monday, he offered his unequivocal support for the protesters in Burma, who have been subject to secret arrest in the middle of the night, beating, and death. “Rapidly changing events in Burma are giving us a vivid reminder of the courage and fortitude required to conduct ourselves in a nonviolent and peaceful way, especially in the face of brutality.

“I offer my own heartfelt support to the peaceful movement for freedom and democracy in Burma, and take this opportunity to appeal to other freedom-loving people all over the world to support such nonviolent movements wherever they occur,” he said on receiving an award from the Institute of Jainology at a ceremony at the House of Commons in London.

Two weeks ago, before the Burmese authorities closed down the Internet to prevent pictures of the violence against the monks from reaching the rest of the world, the Dalai Lama expressed his horror that Buddhist monks devoted to peaceful solutions should become the victims of violence.

“I fully support their call for freedom and democracy and take this opportunity to appeal to freedom-loving people all over the world to support such nonviolent movements,” he said from his exile headquarters in Dharamsala, India. “As a Buddhist monk, I am appealing to the members of the military regime who believe in Buddhism to act in accordance with the sacred dharma in the spirit of compassion and nonviolence.”

Mr. Bush’s public demonstration of support for the Dalai Lama on October 17 is also a direct criticism of China’s poor human rights record and will add pressure on the Chinese communist leadership to exert the utmost influence to restrain its client state, Burma.

America does not recognize Tibet as a separate state, but as part of China, which makes the honor awarded to the Dalai Lama even more unusual. Mr. Bush informed President Hu of China that he would welcome the Dalai Lama to Washington at the recent Asia Pacific Economic Summit in Sydney, Australia, before accepting an invitation from the Chinese communists to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics with Mrs. Bush in August next year.

Mr. Bush is inviting a sharp response from the Chinese, who last week condemned Chancellor Merkel of Germany for holding a private meeting with the Dalai Lama before backing his call for more cultural autonomy for Tibet. The meeting “not only grossly interferes with the internal affairs of China, it hurts the feelings of the Chinese people and seriously undermines China-Germany relations,” a Chinese government spokeswoman said.

Yesterday, the Chinese launched a pre-emptive strike against the visit of the Dalai Lama, who is currently in New York State, accusing him of supporting “evil cults” like a spiritual organization outlawed in China, Falun Gong, and Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo.

The Dalai Lama “not only has no hatred toward evil cults but instead shows a great deal of compassion for them,” the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported.

“It is the 14th Dalai Lama’s own deeds that have step by step betrayed his real intentions and political ambitions put under the guise of Buddhism and peace,” it said.

Last night, in an interview with Dan Rather on HDNet TV, the Dalai Lama returned to his appeal to the Chinese to allow Tibet more freedom. “The present China policy in Tibet [is] almost like a rule of terror,” he said. “This must change.”

Late Monday, at the suggestion of the U.N. special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, the junta appointed a retired general, Aung Kyi, to “continue relations in the future” with Ms. Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for the last 18 years, according to Burmese state-run TV. The military leaders have said Ms. Suu Kyi could be freed if she renounced her appeals to forces outside Burma to press for democracy, a condition her supporters say she would never accept.

Last night, the Dalai Lama spoke to an audience of hundreds in an athletic hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., on behalf of the Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies.