Surprised over Chinese claims on Tawang: Dalai Lama

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Tawang: The Dalai Lama, who arrived here on Sunday to a rousing welcome, took a swipe at Beijing for objecting to his visit to Arunachal Pradesh and said he was “surprised” over Chinese claims on Tawang.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who said his visit to Tawang was not political but religious and spiritual, urged China to honour the rights of six million Tibetans worldwide.

“The basic issue is not about my going back (to Tibet). It is about the well-being of six million Tibetans,” the Dalai Lama told reporters at the Tawang monastery.

On Chinese objections to his visit to the state, he said: “It is quite usual for China to step up campaigning against me wherever I go.”

He recalled his visit to Tawang 50 years ago while fleeing across the Himalayas after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. “I had issued a statement in Tezpur (Assam) in the aftermath of my escape from Tibet in 1959. The Chinese government reacted saying it was not mine but that of officials in India. I repeated that statement in Mussoorie later,” he said.

He said the People’s Liberation Army occupied Tawang during the 1962 war with India. “But the then Chinese government declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew. Now the Chinese have got different views. This is something which I really don’t know. I am a little bit surprised,” he said in an apparent reference to Chinese claims over Tawang.

The Dalai Lama said China first established contact with him in the early part of 1980, offering him a five-point proposal to return to Tibet. “The Chinese government also offered to send an official to New Delhi to take me back, but I refused,” he said.

China later re-established contact in 1993, he said, but there was no headway in talks. “We renewed direct contact again in 2002 with Beijing making a fresh offer for my return. But I told them that the issue is not of my return but that of the well-being of six million Tibetans spread worldwide,” he said.