China prevents Nepal from attending celebrations at Tibetan monastery

KATHMANDU - Though China failed to prevent US President Barack Obama from meeting exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, it has succeeded in stopping top Nepalese officials from attending the birth centenary celebrations of a revered Tibetan monk.

Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav, Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, who is also the deputy prime minister, and Culture Minister Minendra Rijal have received invitations to attend the birth centenary celebrations of the monk at a Tibetan monastery in Kathmandu.

However, the officials have distanced themselves from the Tibetan monastery under pressure from China.

The Tibetan monastery is celebrating the birth centenary celebrations of Dilgo Khyentse, born in 1910 in Tibet, one of the best known luminaries of Tibetan Buddhism and a leader of the Nyingma sect, one of the oldest major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Chinese troops reportedly destroyed the monastery of the sect, the Shechen Monastery in eastern Tibet, and the monk went into exile in Nepal.

In the 1980s, the exile painstakingly built a new monastery in Kathmandu’s Boudhanath area, the hub of Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal, engaging skilled craftsmen from Tibet so that the new monastery was an exact replica of the destroyed one.

Today, there are Shechen monasteries in India and Bhutan as well.

Though the monk died in 1991, his disciples in 1993 hailed as his reincarnation a Tibetan boy born in Nepal, Khyentse Yangsi, acknowledged as the monk’s reincarnation by the Dalai Lama.

This year, Shechen monasteries worldwide are celebrating the birth centenary of the monk.

The Chinese embassy in Kathmandu conveyed its anger over the invitations to Nepal’s foreign ministry Sunday, saying any acceptance would be regarded as a gross violation of Nepal’s avowed commitment to the “One China” policy, that regards Tibet and Taiwan to be inalienable and integral parts of the Chinese republic.

The president’s office Monday issued a statement, saying the president had not consented to be the chief guest at the monastery celebrations.

It also hinted at action against “such organisations or persons involved in the dissemination of such false news”.

Unable to root out religious and political activities by Tibetans in Nepal, China has been stepping up pressure on the government.

Nepal’s official media Tuesday said additional Armed Police Force personnel have been sent to Mustang, a remote mountainous district in northern Nepal bordering Tibet, which was once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom.

Border patrols have been intensified in the district to prevent anti-China activities, the report said.

The “anti-China” activities are mostly flights by Tibetans, including nuns and children, in a bid to reach Dharamsala in India, the seat of the exiled Dalai Lama, since they are prevented from receiving Tibetan religious and other traditional education in China-controlled Tibet.

In the last fortnight, Nepal police have arrested more than half a dozen Tibetan fugitives.