Scholar: India's support of Dalai Lama' visit to disputed border area harms Sino-India relations

By:China Tibet Online
update:April 06,2017

April 6,2017--Tawang is a part of Tibet and of course a part of China, and India allows the Dalai Lama to visit the disputed zone in the eastern part of the China-India border area is going to severely damage China's interests and China-India relations, said a scholar when asked about the issue at a news salon recently held at the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, where dozens of domestic and foreign journalists as well as foreign diplomats present discussing the protection of Tibetan culture with experts and scholars from the center.

Lian Xiangmin, a well-known Tibetologist from the center said, "With support and arrangement from the Indian government over the past few years, the 14th Dalai Lama visited the Tawang region in 2009 and plans to visit there again in the near future. I note that during his visit to Tawang, the Dalai Lama claimed Tawang as the soul of India, which violates the historical fact that Tawang is a part of Tibet and also damages the friendly relations between China and India."

Lian introduced that in history the Tawang Temple was a branch of Lhasa's Drepung Monastery. It had to hand over various products to the local government of Tibet, embodying the local Tibetan government's jurisdiction over Tawang Temple and the Tawang area.

"So Tawang is part of Tibet and as Tibet is part of China, of course Tawang is part of China. There is no doubt about this logic," added the scholar.

In fact, according to Chinese administrative divisions, Tawang belongs to the Cona County, Lhoka, Tibet Autonomous Region. It is a fertile piece of land and is reputed as "Pearl of South Tibet".

In 1681, the fifth Dalai Ngawang Lozang Gyatso ordered the establishment of the Tawang Temple, thus becoming a Buddhist holy place, and had been under the effective jurisdiction of the local Tibetan government for a long time. It is also the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso.

However, it is currently illegally occupied by India and has been divided into the so-called "Arunachal Pradesh".