Kathmandu, July 5 – The Nepalese authorities have banned events celebrating the birthday of the Dalai Lama in Kathmandu planned for this coming Sunday. The ban was announced by phone by the Chief of Police at about 9pm on Friday 4th July to the Representative of the Dalai Lama here in Kathmandu. It was presumably announced deliberately late to make publication difficult.
This is probably the first time in recent years that all the events normally held by the Tibetan community here to mark the 6th July birthday have been banned. Though one event was controversially banned at similarly short notice last year, other major celebrations were allowed to take place.
Formal permission for this year’s events had been granted by the authorities in the last week. As in previous years, Tibetan organisers had been told that the Dalai Lama’s picture could not be displayed in the public procession, but there was no anticipation that the permissions issued last week would be revoked, and following international criticism of Nepal’s deportation of 18 Tibetan refugees on 31st May, Kathmandu had been widely expected here to take a conciliatory approach to this year’s events.
Three events were planned for Sunday, following normal practice – a public procession and prayers around the Baudhanath stupa at 8am, an event at the Srongtsen Tibetan school in Baudhanath at 9.30am, and an evening reception at Kathmandu’s Malla Hotel at 6pm on Sunday. The events take a largely cultural or religious form rather than a political one, including prayers, dance and opera performances. Invitations had been already been issued for the school events and the receptions, and the ban has been issued too late for notices to be placed in the press warning of the cancellations. Saturday is an official holiday in Nepal, and reaching officials will be difficult. Last year, an evening reception at the Radisson Hotel was cancelled by Nepalese police at 24 hours notice, but a public event during the day was allowed to go ahead at Swayambhu, and was attended by thousands of Tibetans. That ban had been assumed to have been because the Nepalese King was visiting Beijing at the time.. The ban on this year’s public gathering in the morning at Baudhanath and on the school event, which is technically private, seems likely to cause most concern among Tibetans.
(TSG by RB)
