(TibetanReview.net, Feb07’26) – Nepal’s communist leaders have been criticising the ongoing visit of a Tibetan Buddhist master on invitation from the country’s Buddhist community at a 10-day religious event in capital Kathmandu that began on Feb 1, calling him a representative of the Dalai Lama and therefore a potential red flag to China. While this allegation is seen to be entirely baseless and likely political in light of the ongoing general elections, the communists should, perhaps, direct their attention, ever anger, with greater focus at Chinese troops in their Tibet-border area who have for years been harassing, even beating and committing arson, on the country’s livestock farmers in naked violation of a bilateral border agreement.
Nepali herders are being harassed, and have even been beaten in some cases, by Chinese troops on the Tibetan side of the border despite a 2012 bilateral deal allowing seasonal grazing of herds within 30 km on each other’s sides, reported kathmandupost.com Feb 3.
Until seven or eight years ago, Nepalese herders were able to graze their animals openly within the designated cross-border area. But in recent years, Chinese authorities had tightened controls, compelling them to take their flocks to remote forests with little human movement.
“This has never happened before. Now we are afraid to even graze secretly,” Bir Bahadur Bohara of Kanda in ward 3 of Saipal Rural Municipality, Bajhang District, located in Nepal’s westernmost province of Sudurpashchim, has said.
The province is surrounded by Purang county of Tibet in the Northwest, India’s Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh states in the West and South respectively, Nepal’s Karnali Province in the East and North, with Lumbini Province touching it in the South.
Bohara and Pasang Tamang had taken their horses and mules to graze at Bains, located about 17 kilometres from Boundary Pillar No 2 at Urai Bhanjyang, across the border in Tibet. The Trans-Frontier Pasturing by the Border Inhabitants, signed by Nepal and China in 2012, allows residents of border areas in both countries to graze livestock. Clause 2 of the agreement, signed on Jan 14, 2012, permits border residents to use pastureland within 30 kilometres of the international boundary, the report pointed out.
Nevertheless, Bohara and Tamang have said they were abused by Chinese security personnel, that the Chinese set fire to the tents they had erected for shelter, along with their contents of their bedding, clothes, food supplies and cooking utensils. The Chinese have also burned horse gear, including reins, saddle blankets and saddles.
“They smashed the utensils outside the tent. They also snatched my mobile phone and hit me twice on the head with it. A lump formed on my head, and the phone’s display was damaged,” Tamang has said.
After the assault, the security personnel escorted the two men, along with their horses and mules, to the Nepali side of the border at Urai. They warned them not to bring livestock to the area again and threatened that it would not be good if they entered Chinese territory again.
“They were extremely angry. They came and started beating us without saying anything and set our tents on fire. We asked what mistake we had made, but they did not understand our language and became even more aggressive,” Bohara has said.
A day after the Bains incident, Chinese security personnel allegedly mistreated another Nepali pastoralist from Jima in ward 2 of Saipal. Sabbalya Raut, 68, had camped more than 550 sheep at around 11 kilometres from the border, when a team of Chinese security personnel arrived and attempted to manhandle him, forcing him to flee after pleading for mercy, the report said.
“I folded my hands and begged them not to beat an old man. They had also brought two men from Humla who could understand the language. They explained something to the security personnel. I was not beaten, but they did not allow me to stay there,” Raut has said.
Raut then moved his flock to a place called Tauwen in the neighbouring Humla district. He has said this was not his first experience grazing sheep in Tibet. For the past 52 years, since the age of 16, he had taken his sheep across the border every monsoon season.
The report cited local residents as saying the above two were not isolated cases. Samnel Gurung, aged 69, of Himali Rural Municipality, used to graze his animals in Tibetan pastures. But three years ago, he and 11 other herders were assaulted near Lubu for entering without permits. “Earlier, we had our own camps and grazing grounds. Now we go like thieves. It hurts deeply that China has stopped us from lands our ancestors used,” Gurung has said.
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Over the past few years, Chinese security personnel have increasingly restricted entry into Tibetan areas, citing forest degradation caused by grazing. Herders from Bajhang district who had traditionally taken livestock to Tibet for seasonal grazing have said they now face harassment and intimidation almost every year.
Before the Covid pandemic, the restrictions were far looser. Each summer, eight to ten thousand sheep and goats from Saipal alone would graze in Tibetan forests, tended by more than a hundred herders. “There were no restrictions. Wherever we went felt like our own village. I have mit (sworn friend) in every village there. Now it is not like that,” Kalu Dhami of ward 1 of Saipal, who has been herding in Tibet since 1983, has said.
Until 15 or 20 years ago, these relationships sustained vibrant cross-border trade. In summer, Nepali herders carried local produce north. In winter, Tibetans travelled south with wool and salt, returning with rice, wheat, chilli and Sichuan pepper. That trade has now collapsed after China barred Tibetans from entering Nepal. “Even seven or eight years ago, my mit spent every winter at my home. Now they are not allowed to come,” Dhami has recalled.
The report cited experts as saying the displacement of Nepali herders reflected weak diplomacy. Former Nepali ambassador to China Rajeshwar Acharya has said Nepal had failed to raise people-centric issues effectively. “China’s policies change with its national interests. But Nepal should have recalibrated its engagement to safeguard traditional practices. That did not happen,” he has said.
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Meanwhile, CPN-UML Vice Chair Ram Bahadur Thapa has said a Chinese intellectual had published an article in the Chinese media outlet Dragon, issuing a warning to Nepal and the Nepali government. Thapa linked the concern to the recent visit of Kyabje Jonang Gyaltsab Rinpoche, who arrived in Kathmandu on Jan 29 as a representative of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, reported myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com Feb 6.
Speaking to journalists on Feb 4, Thapa has claimed the Rinpoche was received with what he described as state-level protocol, including an escort from Tribhuvan International Airport to his place of residence, suggesting that the current government was allowing activities perceived as anti-China.
This claim appears to be entirely baseless, as both the country’s home ministry and the top police officer have denied any knowledge of the matter. Home Ministry Spokesperson Anand Kafle, a joint secretary, said the ministry had no information on the matter. Similarly, Nepal Police Spokesperson DIG Abi Narayan Kafle said the police were unaware of when and why the Rinpoche arrived in Nepal, the report noted.
Also, Tashi Phuncho Gurung, president of the Dolpo Society, a non-governmental organisation based in Aurbari, has said the relationship between Dolpo and the Jonang tradition is historically deep, authentic, and continuous.
“Inviting Kyabje Jonang Gyaltsab Rinpoche, the current principal spiritual leader of the Jonang tradition, is a natural and legitimate act directly linked to the historical, spiritual, and cultural heritage of the Dolpo community,” he has said in a statement.