Hundreds of Buddhist monks held a noisy but peaceful protest in Oxford today against the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama was speaking at the Sheldonian Theatre and almost 1,000 members of the Western Shugden Society gathered outside.

The protesters chanted "Dalai Lama stop lying" and "Dalai Lama - give religious freedom" as he arrived for the talk at 9.30am. The chanting reached fever pitch as the spiritual leader drove up in a chauffeur-driven vehicle. He ignored the demonstrators and was immediately escorted into the building. There were no arrests.

The society claims the Tibetan leader has banned a traditional Buddhist prayer, and believes his followers are abusing the human rights of followers of the Shugden Buddhist sect.

Kelsang Pema, a spokesman for the Western Shugden Society, said: "The demonstration is very loud and we hope the Dalai Lama hears our message.

"When the Dalai Lama was 50, he decided that one very simple and pure spiritual prayer should no longer be regarded as Buddhist.

"We have tried to petition him peacefully since the 1990s but he will not listen and now people are being expelled from monasteries and schools for trying to practise this prayer.

"In January, he launched a referendum for people to choose whether this practice should be denounced or not but people are not being given a proper choice."

The Sheldonian Theatre was cordoned off to people who were not invited to the talk and there was a strong police presence, including officers on horseback.

Supporters of the Western Shugden Society are thought to have come to Oxford from as far away as Brazil, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Many of them have been following the Dalai Lama around the UK to protest.

Marc Gascoigne, 22, a graduate student of Somerville College who saw yesterday's protest, said: "It's a very colourful demonstration.

"I've seen a couple of animal rights demonstrations outside the Sheldonian in the past but this is something else."

Following his talk, the Dalai Lama visited the Pitt Rivers Museum to launch The Tibet Album, a website documenting the history of Tibet in photographs.