Dalai Lama riles China, this time with India trip

By Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama, branded by China as a separatist, on Sunday begins a week-long visit to a remote Indian province also claimed by Beijing as the two countries struggle to settle a border dispute.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has defended the visit to Arunachal Pradesh as a mere lecture tour, but it has already drawn heavy criticism from Beijing, coming just two months after he visited self-ruled Taiwan, an island China also claims as its own.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. Beijing calls him a dangerous "splittist" encouraging Tibetan independence, a charge he denies. He says he is merely seeking autonomy for Tibet.

The visit to Arunachal Pradesh comes at a time when the Asian giants, which fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962, are trying to scale down tension over troop mobilisation along their disputed border. Booming trade has eased relations, but mistrust remains.

"The Dalai Lama's visit is a tacit acknowledgement that Tawang is a part of India," said Srikanth Kondapalli, head of East Asian studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh, the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama and part of territory that Beijing considers as "southern" Tibet, is the centre of the border row.

"He is testing China because they have adopted a hardline stand on Tibet and their talks are going nowhere," said Bhaskar Roy, a New Delhi-based Chinese expert. "He is saying he will keep turning the screw whenever possible to keep Tibet alive."

The last round of talks between China and envoys of the Dalai Lama failed last November when Chinese officials rejected their calls for "high-level autonomy" for Tibet, which makes up nearly a quarter of China's land mass.