Dalai Lama visits Arunachal Pradesh

By Krittivas Mukherjee

TAWANG, India (Reuters) - Thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters welcomed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on Sunday to Arunachal Pradesh 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.

The Tibetan spiritual leader defended his visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and said he wasn't surprised by Beijing's reaction.

"It is quite usual for China to step up the campaign against me wherever I go," the Dalai Lama told reporters after opening a museum at a 400-year-old monastery in Tawang, which is at the heart of the border row between the two countries.

"My visit here is non-political," he said.

Beijing, which considers Arunachal Pradesh to be part of south Tibet, criticised the visit as undermining Chinese territorial integrity. It has slammed the Dalai Lama's "scheme to wreck China's relations" with India.

India and China have made little progress in resolving their decades-old dispute over the Himalayan border, despite several rounds of talks.