News

The Tibet question may or may not come up formally in the talks between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his Chinese hosts in Beijing. But the political static from Tibet can never really be avoided in any engagement between the two neighbours.

Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of relics that will go some way to explaining ancient Tibetan existence, Chinese state press reported on Monday.

The Dalai Lama is now in Kargil as part of his three-week visit to Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier on June 12, he arrived in Buddhist-dominated Ladakh region where a large number of Tibetans living in exile gave him an warm welcome.

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.

testing

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.

Chiru browsing on the Tibetan plateau (Photo by George Schaller courtesy TRAFFIC)

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).

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.