Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama gestures during a speech at the 108th anniversary of Indian Merchant Chambers in Mumbai yesterday.
Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader said yesterday that an unsettled border with China encompassing large parts of the Tibetan plateau was a problem for India and called for talks to resolve the dispute as Chinese President Xi Jinping toured India.
The Dalai Lama’s remarks in Mumbai came as Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a standoff in a barren western stretch of the Himalayas, souring the goodwill around Xi’s trip, which China later said had been brought under control.
The Indian army said yesterday it was an “ongoing situation” and refused to give details after 334 such incidents recorded from the beginning of the year until August along both the eastern and western parts of the 3,500km border.
“Actually the Tibetan problem (is) also (a) problem of India. Before 1950, you see the whole northern border, really peaceful, no single soldier. So India’s problem,” the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India, told reporters.
“So sooner or later you have to solve these problems, not by force but by understanding and talk. Understanding comes through talk, only through personal contact.”
China, which regards the Dalai Lama as a “splittist”, or separatist, has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since Communist troops marched in 1950 and regularly applies diplomatic pressure on countries to crack down on the activities of Tibetans.
But the Tibetan leader says he only seeks greater autonomy for his homeland which he fled after a failed uprising in 1959 and yesterday urged Xi to learn from India’s democratic experience.
“I think the Chinese president should learn some of India’s experience. Look, east India, south India, west India, north India, different language, different script. But no danger of separation. Isn’t it? Democratic rule, rule of law and free media...” he said.
The Dalai Lama hailed Xi as “more open-minded”.
“Xi Jinping’s approach (is) more realistic, more open-minded” than that of his Chinese predecessor Hu Jintao, the Tibetan spiritual leader said.
“Xi Jinping’s thinking (is) more realistic, more open-minded, so he can learn more things from India,” he continued.
“After all, Sino-India relations on the basis on new trust is very important, very essential.”
Groups of Tibetan activists held noisy protests outside the hotel where Xi was staying in New Delhi and at the stately Hyderabad House where he sat down for formal talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
About 20 women shouting anti-China slogans ran past the police lines outside the building while an activist carrying the Tibetan flag climbed a flagpole in another part of Delhi. Police dragged several activists away.
