Drinking yak-butter tea in the Himalayas is a natural high, writes James Elam. Yak's butter mixed with boiling water and salt. It sounds disgusting, but it's strange how tastes can change at 5000 metres above sea level.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee returns today, 27 June 2003, from a six-day visit to China. Several agreements were signed during the visit that attempt to address the most crucial matter of contention between both countries over the last half a century
As the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee winds up his China tour today speculations about his remarks still have not stopped making rounds within the exile Tibetan community.
What one must have expected of the Dharamsala administration was an outright condemnation of Indian Prime Minster's remark on Tibet being a part of China. Condemnation did come but not from the Tibetan exile government but from the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest NGO of the Tibetan community with a largely different viewpoint
Despite all the brouhaha and claims by the opposition there is no substantive change in the formulation on reference to Tibet in the joint declaration.
In what could be termed as semantic diplomacy, India has recognized that "The Tibet Autonomous Region is part of the territory of the People's Republic of China." This statement is part of the India-China Joint Declaration signed on June 23 and made public on June 24, 2003.
