Dalai Lama begins visit to disputed India state

By Krittivas Mukherjee

TAWANG, India (Reuters) - Thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters welcomed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on Sunday to a remote Indian region also claimed by China, a trip that has renewed tensions between the Asian giants.

The Dalai Lama arrived by helicopter in this remote Buddhist enclave nestled in the icy folds of the eastern Himalayas, where he had passed through after fleeing Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The visit, as well as reports of border incursions in recent months, has triggered tensions between the world's two most populous nations, whose relations remain hostage to mutual suspicion lingering from a brief 1962 border war.

Beijing has criticised the visit as undermining Chinese territorial integrity. It has slammed the Dalai Lama's "scheme to wreck China's relations" with India.

The Tibetan leader says the weeklong visit is merely a spiritual lecture tour.

China lays claim to 90,000 sq km of land on the eastern sector of the border. India disputes that and instead says China occupies 38,000 sq km (15,000 sq miles) of territory in Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas.

Hundreds of people lined the road to Tawang -- a moonscape of steep, craggy mountains and white stupas, which is home to the Monpa people who practice Tibetan Buddhism and speak a tongue similar to Tibetan.

Roads were washed, welcome gates with colourful Buddhist paintings erected and the valley's main monastery decked up. With hundreds of exiled Tibetans arriving for the event from all over India, the town took on a carnival look to greet the Dalai Lama.