Nepal bans celebration of Dalai Lama’s birthday
Tibetan Buddhist women spin prayer wheels at the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu on October 5, 2009. As Beijing marked the 60th anniversary of Communist rule this month, police in Nepal quietly rounded up dozens of Tibetan exiles they said were suspected of planning to hold anti-China protests.
In yet another signal that India has every reason to fear China's growing influence in Nepal, Kathmandu banned Tibetan exiles from celebrating the Dalai Lama's birthday citing fears that the celebrations would turn into anti-China protests, reports the Associated Press.
Hundreds of riot police blocked the Tibetans from entering the Namgyal school on the northern edge of Kathmandu, where the celebrations were planned, the news agency said.
The Dalai Lama spent his 76th birthday in Dharmsala, India, his home since he fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Police in Kathmandu also guarded the Chinese Embassy and its visa office against protests and stepped up patrols in areas populated by Tibetans.
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