by Sangam Prasain in The Kathmandu Post, Dec 6, 2023Nepal welcomed an all-time high of Indian visitors. The reason: China. As the Tibetan authorities denied access to nearly 50,000 Indian pilgrims who had booked the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, they were forced to visit Nepal’s holy places like Muktinath and Lumbini on the same package, at least three tour operators dealing with the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra package, told the Post. The holy travel season begins in…
Posts tagged as “Tibet”
edit in The Kathmandu Post, September 28, 2023That Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will claim to have taken Nepal-China relations to newer heights upon his arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport is a ritual all too familiar to Nepalis. The 13-point joint statement released Wednesday, before Dahal left for Tibet en route to Nepal, is diplomatic sweet talk for the most part. In the first six points of the statement, the two sides have just…
by Basant Pratap Singh in The Kathmandu Post,Sept 16th, 2023Kalu Dhami from Dhalain in ward 1 of Saipali Rural Municipality is a sheep farmer. Until four years ago, Dhami would go to Taligumpha village near Taklakot on the tri-junction of Nepal-China and India, to meet his friends. Dhami would routinely visit Taklakot, also known as Purang, the first city in Tibet that travellers encounter after leaving Nepal. Located at an altitude of 4,755 metres, Talklakot…
by Sangam Prasain & Rupa Gahatraj in The Kathmandu Post, Apr 1, 2023Thousands of Hindu pilgrims from India used to come to Nepalgunj in southwestern Nepal every year to fly to Simikot, from where they would enter Tibet for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. The religious travellers would fill the hotels and restaurants, and keep travel agents, airlines, guides and porters busy. The annual pilgrimage season would be boom time for the tourism industry, and the…
On February 13, Mario Otero, US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Affairs, arrived in Kathmandu for a round of talks. And on the same day the Nepali police forced Chushi Gangdruk to abruptly end its elections to the dismay of local Tibetan refugees. By design or accident, the police action provided an opportunity to the American official to know and hear first hand the problems of the Tibetan refugees, who continue to stream into the Himalayan…
Three Tibetan writers identified as Jangtse Donkho, Buddha and Kalsang Jinpa were tried (Oct.28) by the Aba Intermediate People’s Court in Sichuan province on charges of inciting activities to split the nation. All three were detained earlier in July, 2010 by Chinese authorities on charges of writing articles in a local newsletter Shar Dungri (Eastern Snow Mountain) about the 2008 unrest. All three, along with their lawyers and some family members, were present in the…
On October 19 Qinghai province witnessed a major protest against the Chinese government decision to replace Tibetan with Chinese language as a medium of instruction in Tibetan schools. Around 1500 students from six schools, and monks of Rongpo monastery gathered at Rebkong in Malho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) to express their opposition. Around 30 police vehicles surrounded the protestors but no arrests were made. Later, Ah Gendun, the Deputy Head of the Malho TAP and…
Tightening its grip over Tibet, Chinese authorities have promulgated new regulations that are designed to snap any possible links between Tibet based monks and India based Dalai Lama. Effective from November 1, 2010, the decree will affect recognition of reincarnations inside Tibet as all the major leaders of four sects of Tibetan Buddhism are presently in India. China is building a dam on the Salween River near a site considered as sacred by local Tibetans…
Sonam presents the perfect picture of a Tibetan – except that he is in hiding in India, escaping from the tyranny of a Chinese system that broke up his family, took away his job, and forced him to shame his faith under duress.