HH Dalai Lama's Tawang visit!

[ppgj]

Paper no. 3421 17-Sept-2009

INDIA: THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH

By Dr. Subhash Kapila

Introductory Observations

China’s past and contemporary rigidity on claiming the whole of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory arises significantly from the strategic importance of this region in relation to China and its hold on Tibet.

On the eve of Chinese President Hu Jin Tao’s visit to India in 2006 the then Chinese Ambassador to India in a manner that was diplomatically abrasive, unwise and arrogant startled the Indian policy establishment by public assertions that the whole of Arunachal Pradesh was part of China.

This Author had at that time in SAAG Paper No. 2023 dated 13.11.2006 entitled: “CHINA: THE STRATEGIC RELUCTANCE ON BOUNDARY SETTLEMENT WITH INDIA” (http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers/paper2023.html) had focused on two major issues:

* “China’s Endless Round of Border Dispute Negotiations” to prolong a boundary settlement was prompted by strategic reasons.
* “The Strategic Importance of Tawang" Some of the major reasons of the strategic importance of Arunachal Pradesh were highlighted and it was stressed that India could not afford any territorial compromises in this region.

In the current season while China has once again focused on rigidly and persistently claiming the whole of this region, it is appropriate to refocus on the strategic importance of Arunachal Pradesh to India. The above referred Paper is reproduced below.

Additionally, one would like to stress is that Arunachal Pradesh in India’s hands strategically worries China most because it is from this region that India’s missile ranges and coverage of Chinese heartland targets, offers the best locations.

Concluding Observation

Notwithstanding any peace rhetoric from China or efforts to lower temperatures in the India-China border standoff on the Tibet border, it would be realistic for Indian military contingency planning to expect a major Chinese military offensive against India centering on Arunachal Pradesh with Tawang as the initial prime target. That was the lesson of 1962 also.

(The author is an International Relations and Strategic Affairs analyst. He is the Consultant, Strategic Affairs with South Asia Analysis Group. Email:[email protected])

Paper no. 2023 13.11.2006

CHINA: THE STRATEGIC RELUCTANCE ON BOUNDARY SETTLEMENT WITH INDIA

By Dr. Subhash Kapila

Introductory Observations

China ever since its emergence as a monolithic Communist state in 1949 was involved in boundary disputes with virtually every nation on its peripheries. It led to border wars with the former Soviet Union, Vietnam and India. In the case of Vietnam and India, the border wars were perceived by China as punitive wars.

China today has undertaken boundary settlements with virtually all countries with which it had disputes with the exception of India.

Some in India hoped that with a generational change in leadership in China and with the economic, political and strategic rise of India, China may be prompted to move towards more accommodative stances on the China-India boundary dispute.

China’s President Hu Jintao would be visiting India from November 20, 2006 for four days. This author has already spelt out in two earlier papers, that in terms of perspectives, China has given no indications that India could expect any significant breakthrough announcements by the Chinese president on the boundary dispute.

The Chinese President’s visit to India in November 2006 will be just one more item in the chronology of China- India relations. A politically correct visit at best.

This paper attempts to analyse the strategic importance of Tawang (read Arunachal Pradesh) which has now emerged in the open as the core issue of China’s reluctance on the border dispute settlement.

China’s Endless Round of Border Dispute Negotiations

Endless rounds of border dispute negotiations have taken place between China and India. These have taken place at two levels, namely:

* Joint Working Group (JWG) discussions which commenced in 1988
* Special Representatives talks at the level of India’s National Security Advisers and Chinese Vice Minister level since June 2003.

The JWG has already completed over fifteen rounds of discussions. The Special Representatives held Seventh Round of talks in March 2006.

The standard responses after each round have been of the type that was stated in March 2006: “The two Special Representative continued their discussions for an agreed framework for the resolution of the boundary question in a constructive and friendly atmosphere”.

Chinese leaders on visits to India come out with the oft-repeated statement that the boundary dispute should be left to future generations to resolve and meanwhile China-India relations in other fields should move forward. This is just an excuse to keep alive the border dispute as a strategic pressure point against India.

This leads to the question whether China is really serious about resolution of the China-India border dispute?

The endless round of negotiations does not suggest so.

It is best exemplified by an Indian media news report that no meetings have been scheduled between Indian and Chinese Special Representatives for talks on the boundary dispute before the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao on November 20 “as India doesn’t expect any substantive progress on the border issue in the near future.”

Symbolically, China’s reluctance can be read as dissatisfaction with growing US-India strategic relationship and keeping alive the border dispute as a strategic pressure point against India.

Obviously China is actively involved in delays and prolonging the resolution of the boundary disputes for strategic reasons.

China’s Strategic Reluctance on Boundary Settlement with India

Veiled references in the past were made by Indian official spokesmen that progress could not be made as China was constantly pressurizing India to accept a swap by India of Tawang in lieu of Aksai-Chin.

China has now come out in the open to demand and advocate this proposal. An Indian news-report covering the closed door meeting organized between Chinese distinguished experts and Indian academics by China’s Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, which is part of the giant official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had this to report:

* Chinese experts said that China would be magnanimous on the issue of Aksai Chin area if India agreed to give up Tawang.
* The high-level Chinese experts which included former Chinese Ambassador to India Chen Rui Sheng made it clear that the border dispute could be solved if India handed over Tawang to China.

The Strategic Importance of Tawang for India

At the outset it must be made clear that for the Chinese, Tawang is not just the Tawang Monastery region. For them Tawang implies the whole of India’s Arunachal Pradesh. So as not to dilute their claim, they officially will not call it that Arunachal Pradesh should be returned to them.

Coming to the strategic importance of Arunachal Pradesh or Tawang in Chinese parlance the following need to be recognized:

* Arunachal Pradesh provides strategic depth to India’s Brahmaputra Valley and India’s other North Eastern states.
* Arunachal Pradesh provides security to Bhutan on it entire Eastern flank by geographical contiguity.
* Bhutan would be then be in a pincer group of China on both it flanks if Tawang is given away. This would be detrimental to India’s security.
* China’s borders would then rest on the plains of Assam; India might as well write off its other North Eastern states.
* The Chinese obsession with the Tawang Region is totally strategic in its aims.
* In any future conflict with China and if India singly or in coalition with some other power develops offensive capabilities against China, this region offers the shortest cut to China proper and to Tibet.
* India’s communications infrastructure in this region developed in World War II for US military aid to China is existent and can be further improved.
* Arunachal Pradesh offers all-wealthier lines of communication to India for military needs to the Tibet border as compared to Aksai-Chin.
* In terms of any air operations by China in this region, Arunachal Pradesh would provide multi-layered air defence deployments on the ground as deterrence.
* The region is rich in terms of mineral and natural resources prospects.

There are many more reasons that one can state but the major ones should be enough. Arunachal Pradesh is of vital strategic importance for the territorial integrity and defence of India’s North East states and should be non-negotiable.

Concluding Observations

China would be politically naive of it perceives that in the 21st Century, a powerfully rising India would accept the bait of a Chinese strategic barter of Aksai-Chin in lieu of Tawang (read Arunachal Pradesh)

India would be more politically naive than China if it thinks that China would concede the area of Aksai-Chin through which passes its lifelines to keep Xinjiang under Chinese control.

Both in Aksai Chin and in the Arunachal Pradesh area, the strategic interests of China and India clash in the most intense manner. It would be a magical wonder if China can turn around to be strategically accommodative of India’s strategic sensitivities.

China’s strategic reluctances to solve the border dispute with India can therefore be expected to bedevil China-India relations for a long time to come.

(The author is an International Relations and Strategic Affairs analyst. He is the Consultant, Strategic Affairs with South Asia Analysis Group. Email:[email protected])

INDIA: THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH 

 

[RAM]

Dalai Lama arrives in Tawang to rousing reception by Tibetans

Tawang: Braving the winter chill, thousands of Tibetans and locals today lined up along the roads leading to the Tawang Monastery and gave a rousing reception to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who arrived here on a four-day visit.

After his arrival here by a helicopter from Guwahati, the 74-year-old Dalai Lama, accompanied by Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Kandu, was welcomed by cheering Tibetans as he drove along the 10-km stretch from the helipad to the 400-year-old Tawang Monastery.The Dalai Lama's cavalcade stopped at three places -- old market, Manjusree Vidyapeeth and new market -- as the spiritual leader blessed the people who greeted him.

Nestled in the snow-capped mountains and perched at a height of 10,000 feet, this town wears a festive look with colourful posters with the Dalai Lama's pictures and Tibetan and Indian flags flying everywhere.Buildings and houses have been given a fresh coat of paint and streets and localities cleaned to mark the occasion.The Dalai Lama's cavalcade took more than 45 minutes to reach the Tawang Monastery from the helipad.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who is here for the first time since 2003, inaugurated a museum inside the Tawang Monastery. The museum named 'Gadenmamgyallhatsa' contains historic scriptures of the Buddhist faith. Soon after the inauguration, Dalai Lama was taken in a procession from the entrance to duakkan that was attended by 700 Buddhist monks. Accompanied by Kandu and another spiritual leader PG Rinpcohe, the Dalai Lama went into to the duakkan to offer prayers.

Tawang, the 400-year old and the second largest Tibetan monastery in India, holds personal history for the Dalai Lama.When he fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule, he entered India through Arunachal Pradesh and took refuge in Tawang.

He has also visited the town in 1983, 1997 and 2003. He paid two visits to the state in 2003 and during one of them he had skipped Tawang to visit the western side of the state dominated by the followers of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism.

Arunachal PradeshNews online - Newshound

 

[IBRIS]

In tricolour, Tawang ready for Dalai Lama


Forty-seven years ago around this time, Tawang was a ghost town. The Chinese had occupied Tawang, forcing its residents to flee. But on Saturday, the town was abuzz with life as it got ready to receive the 14th Dalai Lama. Everywhere the Indian tricolour fluttered along with the Tibet flag.


“The Indian flag is all over the town because this is India. And the Tibetan flag because His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the highest Tibetan spiritual leader, is coming,” says Guru Tulku Rinpoche, head of the Gaden Namgyal Lhatse, popularly known as the Tawang Monastery. The nearly 400-year-old monastery that overlooks the Tawang-Chu Valley in Arunachal Pradesh was where the Dalai Lama headed after he escaped from Tibet in the winter of 1959.


“He stayed here for a few days when he fled from Tibet 50 years ago. He was here three more times, the last being in 2003. But this time is special, in view of China’s unwarranted objections,” says Phupten Tenzin, a local Monpa tribal, who runs a souvenir shop.
In tricolour, Tawang ready for Dalai Lama

 

[RAM]

In pictures: Dalai Lama visits Arunachal Pradesh

Thousands of people have turned out to welcome the Dalai Lama as he makes a controversial visit to a monastery close to the Tibetan border.The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is in Tawang in India's state of Arunachal Pradesh, itself a source of dispute between Beijing and Delhi.

Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine its rule in Tibet and says the visit is anti-China. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 when Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet.

In August this year, the Dalai Lama, 74, made another hugely controversial visit - to Taiwan, another region China considers part of its territory.

The freezing temperatures in Tawang did not deter thousands of villagers taking to the streets to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama. Tibetan prayer flags fluttered and monks struck cymbals and played horns as the Dalai Lama headed to the Tibetan monastery, the second largest of its kind in India, to hold a prayer session.


"We are very pleased and blessed to have his holiness here," one monk, Sarwang Lama, told AFP news agency. Some pilgrims had walked for as long as five days to be there.

One, Dorji Wangdi, told Associated Press: "If I can just see him once in my lifetime, then I am not afraid to die." Arunachal Pradesh was the first stop during the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet in 1959, and he said he felt close ties to the region. This is only his fifth visit in 50 years.

He said Beijing's accusations that his visit was anti-China and damaging to India-China ties were "baseless". "My visit to Tawang is non-political and aimed at promoting universal brotherhood and nothing else," the Dalai Lama said. Arunachal Pradesh's Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said Beijing had "no right to interfere in India's internal matters".

The trip comes just weeks after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal Pradesh. China strongly criticised that trip, accusing Mr Singh of ignoring its concerns.

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Dalai Lama in Tibet border visit

 

[Koji]

Confirmed: India Limits Media on Contentious Dalai Lama Trip

It is no lie.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/09/world/AP-AS-India-Dalai-Lama.html?_r=1&ref=asia

TAWANG, India (AP) -- Indian officials clamped down Monday on journalists covering the Dalai Lama's trip to a disputed border area in an apparent effort to minimize tensions with neighboring China.

China has protested the Tibetan spiritual leader's weeklong visit to the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh that began Sunday after months of rising friction between India and China.

The Dalai Lama was holding prayer meetings and teaching sessions with adherents in the Himalayan town of Tawang, near the frontier with Chinese-controlled Tibet.

India refused to allow foreign journalists to travel to Tawang to cover the trip and tried to keep local reporters away from the Dalai Lama on Sunday.

As the Dalai Lama inaugurated a hospital wing in Tawang on Monday, Leki Phuntso, a media official with the state government, told waiting reporters they were ''requested'' not to ask any questions.

China had demanded India call off the trip, but India said the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile here since 1959, was an honored guest and free to visit any part of the country.

On the first day of his visit Sunday, the Tibetan leader told reporters who managed to get near him that Beijing's claims that his visit was anti-China were ''baseless.''

On Monday, however, he was surrounded by a tight security cordon that made asking questions impossible.

Vishnu Prakash, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman, did not immediately respond to a phone call and e-mail for comment.

After spending the first day of his visit at the Tawang monastery, the Dalai Lama on Monday began addressing a series of public teaching sessions from a tiny Buddhist temple overlooking a vast, dusty playground that has been converted into an arena of sorts to accommodate the more than 25,000 expected pilgrims.

The area was packed with pilgrims from across India, hundreds who had trekked for days from neighboring Bhutan and a handful of Westerners.

''I feel absolutely honored to be here,'' said Belize Lane, a 20-year-old student from San Francisco, California. ''It's a life changing moment.''

 

[S.A.T.A]

Welcome to H.H Dalai lama......

 

[Daredevil]

If media was not allowed, then why BBC and other media are in Tawang

Check the videos.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | China protest over Dalai Lama visit

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8349385.stm

 

[Koji]

Too bad your government doesn't feel that way.

Can a Mod please change the title of this thread? There is no more speculation that India is trying to appease China by restricting foreign journalists.

 

[S.A.T.A]

So the midgets werent anxious about Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal Pradesh,but its the foreign journalist who the problem.pity that whole time we thought it was the His Holiness's visit that was causing all the consternation.........

Get a life commy

 

[Daredevil]

Too bad your government doesn't feel that way.

Can a Mod please change the title of this thread? There is no more speculation that India is trying to appease China by restricting foreign journalists.

If India had to appease China it would have stalled Dalai Lama's visit but despite China's barking India allowed his visit. Restriction of international media might be a way of throwing of bread crumbs to control Chinese barking.

 

[Koji]

So the midgets werent anxious about Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal Pradesh,but its the foreign journalist who the problem.pity that whole time we thought it was the His Holiness's visit that was causing all the consternation.........

Get a life commy

SATA, I'm going to tell you one again that if you're going to insult people, be sure you are not insulting yourself! By calling the Chinese midgets, you're indirectly referring yourself as a midget as well. Indians on average are shorter than the Chinese on average.

Honestly, this is how you reply? With insults?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Why don't the Chinese learn to mind their own dam buisness, they cannot dictate what happens in others countries.

 

[Rage]

SATA, I'm going to tell you one again that if you're going to insult people, be sure you are not insulting yourself! By calling the Chinese midgets, you're indirectly referring yourself as a midget as well. Indians on average are shorter than the Chinese on average.

Honestly, this is how you reply? With insults?

Why are you getting your knockers in a twist? I see you get more ruffled than any of the Chinese members on the forum. You have no standing on this forum, none whatsoever, particularly for a man that has lied constantly about everything in the past, and in relation to someone who has been a core member of Indian forums since the very beginning.

Do not try to play the moral indignance card with us here, 'Koji'.

I see your subtle agenda everywhere.

 

[Rage]

Too bad your government doesn't feel that way.

Can a Mod please change the title of this thread? There is no more speculation that India is trying to appease China by restricting foreign journalists.

Shut up punk. What 'restrictions' on foreign journalists?

x-x-x-x

Dalai Lama in Tibet border visit

Watch: Video: Dalai Lama in Tibet Border Visit



Thousands of people have turned out to welcome the Dalai Lama as he makes a controversial visit to a monastery close to the Tibetan border.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is in Tawang in India's state of Arunachal Pradesh, itself a source of dispute between Beijing and Delhi.

Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine its rule in Tibet and says the visit is anti-China.

The Dalai Lama insists his visit is "non-political".

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 when Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet.

In August this year, the Dalai Lama, 74, made another hugely controversial visit - to Taiwan, another region China considers part of its territory.


'Internal interference'

The freezing temperatures in Tawang did not deter thousands of villagers taking to the streets to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan prayer flags fluttered and monks struck cymbals and played horns as the Dalai Lama headed to the Tibetan monastery, the second largest of its kind in India, to hold a prayer session.

"We are very pleased and blessed to have his holiness here," one monk, Sarwang Lama, told AFP news agency.

Some pilgrims had walked for as long as five days to be there.

One, Dorji Wangdi, told Associated Press: "If I can just see him once in my lifetime, then I am not afraid to die."

Arunachal Pradesh was the first stop during the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet in 1959, and he said he felt close ties to the region. This is only his fifth visit in 50 years.

He said Beijing's accusations that his visit was anti-China and damaging to India-China ties were "baseless".

"My visit to Tawang is non-political and aimed at promoting universal brotherhood and nothing else," the Dalai Lama said.

Arunachal Pradesh's Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said Beijing had "no right to interfere in India's internal matters".

The trip comes just weeks after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal Pradesh.

China strongly criticised that trip, accusing Mr Singh of ignoring its concerns.


BBC NEWS | South Asia | Dalai Lama in Tibet border visit

 

[Rage]

One more false move from you and I guarantee I will lobby for your permanent removal like I ain't never lobbied for any shit before.

 

[S.A.T.A]

SATA, I'm going to tell you one again that if you're going to insult people, be sure you are not insulting yourself! By calling the Chinese midgets, you're indirectly referring yourself as a midget as well. Indians on average are shorter than the Chinese on average.

Honestly, this is how you reply? With insults?

For a Japanese you take deep umbrage against these alleged insults against Chinese.So leave it to the Chinese and Indians to sort it out..........don't insult your own consciousness.

 

[Koji]

Shut up punk. What 'restrictions' on foreign journalists?

x-x-x-x

Dalai Lama in Tibet border visit

Watch: Video: Dalai Lama in Tibet Border Visit



Thousands of people have turned out to welcome the Dalai Lama as he makes a controversial visit to a monastery close to the Tibetan border.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is in Tawang in India's state of Arunachal Pradesh, itself a source of dispute between Beijing and Delhi.

Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine its rule in Tibet and says the visit is anti-China.

The Dalai Lama insists his visit is "non-political".

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 when Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet.

In August this year, the Dalai Lama, 74, made another hugely controversial visit - to Taiwan, another region China considers part of its territory.


'Internal interference'

The freezing temperatures in Tawang did not deter thousands of villagers taking to the streets to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan prayer flags fluttered and monks struck cymbals and played horns as the Dalai Lama headed to the Tibetan monastery, the second largest of its kind in India, to hold a prayer session.

"We are very pleased and blessed to have his holiness here," one monk, Sarwang Lama, told AFP news agency.

Some pilgrims had walked for as long as five days to be there.

One, Dorji Wangdi, told Associated Press: "If I can just see him once in my lifetime, then I am not afraid to die."

Arunachal Pradesh was the first stop during the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet in 1959, and he said he felt close ties to the region. This is only his fifth visit in 50 years.

He said Beijing's accusations that his visit was anti-China and damaging to India-China ties were "baseless".

"My visit to Tawang is non-political and aimed at promoting universal brotherhood and nothing else," the Dalai Lama said.

Arunachal Pradesh's Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said Beijing had "no right to interfere in India's internal matters".

The trip comes just weeks after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal Pradesh.

China strongly criticised that trip, accusing Mr Singh of ignoring its concerns.


BBC NEWS | South Asia | Dalai Lama in Tibet border visit

If you read the NY Times piece, Indian personnel prevented reporters from asking the Dalai Lama questions in reference to their concern over the Chinese reaction.

 

[Daredevil]

[mod]No more ad-hominems and get back to topic.[/mod]

 

[Koji]

For a Japanese you take deep umbrage against these alleged insults against Chinese.So leave it to the Chinese and Indians to sort it out..........don't insult your own consciousness.

Hypocrisy much eh? Next time, use some legitimate insults.

 

[Rage]

Mods, please change the title of this thread since it is obvious that the 'restrictions' on journalists are a figment of Koji's imagination:

YouTube - Rousing reception to Dalai Lama at Tawang

YouTube - Bulletin # 1 - Dalai Lama receives warm welcome in Tawang Nov. 09 '09