China keeps watchful eye on Dalai Lama's travels

The Tibetan spiritual leader returns to disputed territory on the Indian-Chinese border. Buddhist pilgrims embraced the visit, which has stirred the suspicion of China's leaders.

By MUNEEZA NAQVI, Associated Press

Last update: November 9, 2009 - 12:20 AM

TAWANG, INDIA - Joyous Buddhist pilgrims on Sunday welcomed the Dalai Lama back to the Himalayan town he first set foot in five decades ago while fleeing Chinese rule in his native Tibet -- a rare trip close to his homeland.

The Dalai Lama's arrival highlighted a lingering border dispute between India and China and exposed Beijing's ongoing sensitivities over Tibet.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said last week that the trip "once again exposes the nature of the Dalai Lama as anti-China."

The Dalai Lama, however, insisted that the accusation is "baseless" and that he is only seeking to promote religious values, peace and harmony.

"My visit here is nonpolitical," he said soon after his arrival Sunday morning.

The streets were lined with prayer flags and banners welcoming the Dalai Lama, and thousands braved the cold temperatures and biting wind to attend his five-day visit of prayer meetings and lectures on Buddhism.

"It made us very happy to catch a glimpse of him. Nobody is more important to us than him. The Dalai Lama is our god," said Karmayacha, who uses one name and traveled with her family from a village 20 miles away.

Monks clanged cymbals and sounded traditional Tibetan horns to greet the Dalai Lama as he arrived at the Tawang monastery -- filled with fresh orange, white and red flowers -- from a nearby helipad.

The Dalai Lama first came to Tawang, which has close religious and political ties to Tibet, in 1959, when he fled Communist rule. At that time, he was ill and weary, but when he finally made it here, he felt safe, he said Sunday.

Ahead of this visit -- only his fifth trip here in the last half-century -- pilgrims arrived in packed trucks, others walked along narrow paths in the Himalayan foothills for as long as five days to hear a man they revere as a living god speak.

China regularly protests the movements of the Dalai Lama, but it is particularly sensitive to this trip, which highlights two issues of special concern to Beijing, Tibetan independence and its disputed border with India, said Srinath Raghavan, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.

Said Raghavan: "The Chinese are highly distrustful of what the Dalai Lama is doing there."

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