Dharamshala, 14th October: Rajendra Arlekar, the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, attended a gala dinner at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) on Tuesday, 12 October hosted by Tibetan Youth Congress. Sikyong Penpa Tsering was also present at the occasion, which marked the culmination of the Tibetan Youth Congress’ golden jubilee festivities. The gala dinner reception also featured a cultural performance by TIPA artists, who performed a variety of Tibetan folk songs and cultural dances, including a local Gaddi folk dance.

The development follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday greetings to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in July. Modi had officially confirmed the phone contact on Twitter the same day, possibly to convey a message to Beijing, in a dramatic break from the past and in the midst of a tense military standoff with China in eastern Ladakh.

During the stalemate in eastern Ladakh in 2020, a Special Frontier Force (SFF) unit manned by volunteers from India’s Tibetan refugee community took part in an operation to take over the Kailash Range near Chushul.

Tenzin Nyima, a Tibetan soldier slain in the operation, was given a public funeral with full military honors, including a volley of bullets fired by the ceremonial guard. During his funeral, flags of independent Tibet were flown beside the Indian tricolor in the presence of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Madhav. These developments have reignited interest in India’s Tibet policy and the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

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