India is especially nervous about any such moves because the Tibetan exiles represent an irritating source of tension with China, which has not yet taken sides on the Kashmir issue. Himachal Pradesh, the state where Dharamsala is located, is next door to Kashmir, where the Indian security forces have been fighting Islamic insurgents backed by Pakistan, a traditional ally of China.
The involvement of the US in this ethnic and geopolitical tinderbox has complicated the situation. The US Congress provides US$2 million a year to the Tibetan exile government and is stepping up its rhetoric on the Tibet issue. This year, the US military has started to extend its presence in Nepal through a UN training program for South Asian peacekeepers. Along with US legislators and other military officers, Admiral Dennis Blair visited Kathmandu in January. Now President Clinton's visit to South Asia last month has been taken to represent a tilt towards India, a stance that could easily backfire.
As the meeting point of Asia's three nuclear powers, the Himalayan region could easily explode. A news producer with the German state television network explained to me in Kathmandu: "The Himalayan region could become the strategic battleground of the 21st century."
With our long, exhausting journey at its end in Buddha's birthplace, we marveled at all the deceptions that littered the Tibetan teenager's crooked trail and the false reports repeated by the world's press. The tolling of bronze Buddhist bells resonated across the dusty plains of Lumbini, reminding us of the Buddha's Eightfold Path, which instructs his followers never to deceive others in this world of appearances and to always speak the truth.
Susanna Cheung (
RSS