Followers of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism feel the controversy surrounding the Karmapa issue and the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim may have something to do with Indo-China relations.
China, which is seeking the reopening of the old trade route through Sikkim, a state whose accession to India in 1975 it still refuses to recognise, now says it is willing to allow the governments of Sikkim and Tibet to enter into a bilateral agreement for the purpose, an informed source in the Government of India told rediff.com on Saturday.
Tibet will begin accepting foreign and domestic tour groups from July 1, after a two-month-long break forced by the Sars virus, state media said today.
China has yet again outdone itself in its legacy of terrorism against humanity—this time by forcefully deporting two weeks ago 18 Tibetans to Tibet from nearby Nepal, which otherwise was for these hopeful refugees their doorstep to the outside world, to freedom in exile.
As Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee prepares for his six-day visit to China beginning on June 22, 2003, a debate has formed in India concerning the impact of the Tibet issue on Sino-Indian talks.
Wild animals on the Tibetan plateau that were illegally hunted to the brink of extinction just 10 years ago are beginning to recover, according to biologist Dr. George Schaller of the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Officials in western China and a well-connected Beijing firm are lobbying to build a new hydroelectric dam in an historically Tibetan area of Sichuan Province, despite concerns that it would harm the local environment, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has learned.
