Kathmandu – About two thousand Tibetan exiles in Nepal offered prayers at a Buddhist monastery near Kathmandu on Monday to mark the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against Chinese rule, said a Tibetan official.
The official said there were no public protests or anti-China demonstrations under instructions from Nepal, home to more than 20 000 Tibetans, who came after the failed uprising against Chinese rule led by the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama and hundreds of thousands of others fled Tibet after the crushing of the 1959 uprising.
“We offered prayers inside the monastery compound and the celebrations were not in public places,” said Wangchuck Tsering, the Dalai Lama’s representative in Kathmandu.
“We had instructions from the Nepali police not to raise slogans or display any anti-Chinese banners in public.”
He said there was a heavy police presence but the ceremony went off without any trouble.
Nepal allows Tibetans to live in the landlocked Himalayan nation but prohibits any political activity that could adversely affect its ties with its giant northern communist neighbour.
China is a major aid provider to impoverished Nepal and among the top foreign investors in the cash-strapped nation.
