India: Dalai Lama's Ladakh visit irks China

The Tibetan spiritual leader arrived in Ladakh, India, on July 15 for a monthlong visit

Given the tense relations between India and China, anything the Dalai Lama says or does in the region gains significance, say experts.

The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, arrived in India's remote mountainous Ladakh region bordering China last week for a monthlong visit.  

He received a rousing reception, with thousands of people lining up on both sides of the road outside the airport in the cold desert region's town of Leh to welcome him.

"Tibet and Ladakh share rich cultural and religious ties. The people of Ladakh — including Buddhists, Muslims and Christians — have huge respect for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama," Jigmat Paljor, one of Ladakh's leading student and social activists, told DW.

"Buddhists consider him the spiritual head of Buddhism and a living Buddha of compassion. People in Ladakh are overjoyed about his visit," he added.

This is the spiritual leader's first trip outside his base in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

China-India tensions amid border disputes

It's also the first time he has been in Ladakh since New Delhi split the region from disputed Kashmir, scrapping the entire territory's semiautonomous status and taking direct control in 2019.

This is the Dalai Lama's first trip outside his base in northern India since the onset of the pandemic

That move was sharply criticized by Pakistan, as well as China. A year later, Indian and Chinese troops engaged in deadly clashes in Ladakh. They have been locked in a military standoff along their disputed border ever since

The violence — the most serious in decades — has led to a deterioration of China-India relations.

Happymon Jacob, who teaches foreign policy at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, said he wouldn't generally attach much political significance to the visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader. 

"There isn't any great significance that we can attach to the Dalai Lama's Ladakh visit. India has not made such a big issue of Chinese sovereignty as far as Tibet is concerned. In any case, before the onset of the pandemic the Dalai Lama used to visit Ladakh every year," he said.

Nevertheless, he added, "given the difficulties in India-China relations, anything that the Dalai Lama does in that particular region [Ladakh] will be viewed with great significance by the Indians and Chinese."

Chinese troops took over Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a "peaceful liberation." The Dalai Lama fled into exile nine years later following an uprising and has lived in northern India ever since.

Although New Delhi recognizes Tibet as an autonomous region of China, it has several territorial disputes with Beijing elsewhere on its border, which extends 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) into the Himalayan region.

Upsetting comments?

Before leaving for Ladakh, the Dalai Lama said: "India and China are most populated countries and neighbors. Sooner or later, you have to solve this problem [border disputes along the Line of Actual Control] through talks and peaceful means."

Pravin Sawhney, one of India's leading defense experts, said the comments would have upset China for three reasons.

"One, they [the Chinese] consider the Dalai Lama as a separatist; two, he is going to a problem area because China does not consider the constitutional changes made by India in the Ladakh region in August 2019 as legitimate; and three, India says the Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader but he made a political-military statement in Jammu," he pointed out.

Though Beijing views the Dalai Lama as a "separatist," he has denied seeking Tibet's independence and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of the region's native Buddhist culture.

Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the trip is not viewed positively by Beijing.

"Anything involving the Dalai Lama is political, given how he is perceived by Beijing. The Chinese government objects even if he has brief meetings with Indian officials, and so for him to spend a month in Ladakh — a sensitive region for China — is a move that will certainly not be viewed positively by the Chinese," he said.

'All of us want peace'

How interactions with the Dalai Lama irk Beijing can be seen by how the Chinese government reacted when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on July 6, to convey greetings to the spiritual leader on his 87th birthday.

"The Indian side also needs to fully understand the anti-China and separatist nature of the 14th Dalai Lama," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at the time. "It needs to abide by its commitments to China on Tibet-related issues, act and speak with prudence and stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China's internal affairs."

India's Foreign Ministry hit back and said: "It has been a consistent policy of our government to treat him as a guest in India and as a respected religious leader who enjoys a large following in India."

India considers Tibet to be part of China, though it hosts Tibetan exiles. Beijing doesn't recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile and hasn't held any dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama since 2010.

Ladakh student activist Jigmat Paljor said the Dalai Lama has always been in favor of peace, dialog and reconciliation.

"I endorse his statement that China and India should resolve their border dispute immediately, for we experienced the horrors of warlike situation when the Galwan clashes took place in 2020. All of us want peace."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru