Defying China, Dalai Lama visits Indian town near border

The Dalai Lama, who was sharply criticized by Beijing before the visit, expects to spend five days praying and instructing Buddhist worshipers in the monastery town of Tawang in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, an area claimed by China. His last visit was in 2003.

China has accused the spiritual leader of making the trip to further the movement for an independent Tibet, a region that accounts for about one-sixth of Chinese territory.

"He is always involved in activities that undermine the relations between China and other countries as well as ethnic separatist activities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a regular news briefing last week in Beijing. "The Dalai Lama is a liar."

Although Beijing has leveled similar accusations for decades, its charges have become more pointed since deadly anti-government riots broke out in March 2008 across the Tibetan plateau.

The Dalai Lama's previous visits to Tawang merited little response from China, said Vijay Kranti, editor of Tibbat Desh, a newspaper for the Tibetan exile community in India.

China's reaction this time has turned the visit into a bigger deal than it otherwise would be, he said. "The Dalai Lama's best advertising agency is Beijing," Kranti said.

Tawang holds political and religious significance. Not only has it been at the heart of a border dispute between India and China since their 1962 war, but China briefly occupied the town during the conflict before pulling back to the current demarcation.

The town of 39,000 is also the site of one of Tibetan Buddhism's largest monasteries and a place where the Dalai Lama took refuge 50 years ago when he fled Tibet ahead of pursuing Chinese soldiers. He is now based in Dharamsala, north of New Delhi.