(TibetanReview.net, Jul28’26) – China is showing undue interest in a reputed international seminar on Tibetan studies scheduled to be held in Nepal next month, which led to an involuntary withdrawal of researchers from an exile Tibetan think tank, according to media reports over the past several days. The undue attention from different agencies of the Chinese government has flabbergasted the organizers.
The arrival in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu of a top Chinese Buddhist monk has raised speculations as it has taken place just after China got Tibet Policy Institute, think tank of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), to withdraw from the 17th International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) seminar scheduled to take in the city over Aug 23-29.
The upcoming seminar is attracting growing diplomatic attention as Beijing is sending one of its top Buddhist monks, Venerable Master Yin Shun, to Kathmandu on Jul 29, reported the kathmandupost.com Jul 28.
Master Yin is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), former vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, and abbot of the Zhong Hua Chinese Buddhist Monastery, located in Lumbini. He is a well-known Chinese monk in Nepal and had visited Kathmandu multiple times in the past, the report said.
“At a time when Beijing has been expressing concern over the upcoming event, it is sending its top monks to Kathmandu,” the report quoted a senior government official as saying, adding that Beijing had not disclosed the purpose of the visit.
“Such a major event definitely has drawn attention, so Beijing may have decided to send him for that reason,” the government official has said.
Registration for the IATS closed on Jun 15, 2026 and at 100, China is sending the second largest number of participants. The largest number of participants will be from the USA.
The report cited organisers as saying they were puzzled by the level of concern shown by the Chinese government and its multiple agencies, especially when dozens of Chinese scholars and experts of Tibetan art, culture, literature, history and other related fields were also set to attend the event.
China top concern appeared to have been the five TPI researchers from the CTA participating in their official capacity. This was put paid to after the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Mr Zhang Maoming, met Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai on Jul 21. It led to the TPI withdrawing from the seminar.
Zhang was stated to have told Rai that some individuals could make remarks critical of China and supportive of Tibet, and urged Nepali authorities to ensure that no such things would happen.
We are surprised to see the amount of attention being paid by the Chinese side to the event, Professor Sagar Sharma, who is one of the conveners of the event, has said.
Around 700 delegates from 39 countries will attend the event, according to Sharma.
The seminar will be organised jointly by the Himalaya Centre for Asian Studies, Kathmandu University; and the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Prof Sharma and Prof Thomas Doctor from the two centres will be the co-conveners.
Formally established in 1979 at the University of Oxford, IATS operates as a non-political academic body dedicated to advancing research in Tibetan history, religion, linguistics, and art. Its board members belong to the Czech Republic, Nepal, Austria, Bhutan, Japan, UK, Norway, France, and China.