by Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, June 28: US Ambassador to India David Mulford is on two days visit to Dharamsala beginning yesterday where he met with the exiled Tibetan leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile (Kalon Tripa), Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche.

According to a report, the US officials call the trip part of their periodic contacts with the exile Tibetan government, although the primary purpose of the visit could not be ascertained so far.

Yesterday at around 3:00 in the evening, the ambassador accompanied by his wife and others meet with the Dalai Lama at the exiled Tibetan leader’s residence here in McLeodGanj. The meeting lasted for more than an hour. The US official later in the evening met some of the top officials of the Tibetan Government in Exile.

The visiting guests paid a quick visit to Tibetan Children’s Village yesterday evening, before sitting over an official dinner hosted by the Kashag (Cabinet), led by Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche and members of his cabinet. The dinner coincided with the US Ambassador’s 70th birthday.

The latest visit by the US official quickly follows the U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky’s similar visit to Dharamsala last November.

The visit also comes at a time when Tibetan delegation led by Lodi Gyari are due to leave for China tomorrow for the next round of what has been described by a section of critics and Tibetan activists as unfruitful and sluggish Sino-Tibetan dialogue.

US is crticial of China's human rights, including religious and cultural rights record in Tibet and publishes regular reports criticising the same.

As part of the visit, the the group will visit some of the key Tibetan cultural centres and institutions established over here.

Both the Dobriansky and Mulford’s visits are kept in low profile. China is opposed to foreign leaders and representative meeting with the Tibetan leaders. Tibetans, however, welcome such meetings as symbolic to growing sympathy to Tibet’s cause.

Dharamsala in the northern India is home to the exiled Tibetan leader and is the base for Tibetan Government in Exile for the last more than forty years. Thousands of Tibetans followed His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama into exile after a failed uprising against communist China in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on 10 March 1959.