Tibetan exiles celebrate uprising anniversary in low-key manner.

KATHMANDU, March 10 Kyodo

An estimated 2,000 Tibetan exiles attended a prayer service in the Nepalese capital Monday to commemorate the 44th anniversary of a failed uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa against Chinese rule.

''We held a peaceful religious function this year as our government had asked us not to do anything that would antagonize the Chinese,'' Wangchuk Tshering, a Nepal-based representative of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said after the service held at a Buddhist monastery in southwest Kathmandu.

Traditionally, Tibetan exiles in Nepal have marked Tibetan National Uprising Day with religious prayers, anti-China protests, and calls to free Tibet.

''This year, Nepalese police too had asked us to avoid activities that could be construed as anti-Chinese,'' Tshering said.

Nepal, which shares a 1,100-kilometer border with the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, is home to more than 30,000 Tibetan exiles, many of whom fled along with the Dalai Lama after the 1959 uprising.

The Dalai Lama himself resides in India, in the northern Himalayan town of Dharmasala, where a Tibetan government-in-exile is based.

Article Details

Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Publication:	Asian Political News
Geographic Code:	9NEPA
Date:	Mar 10, 2003
Words:	180
Previous Article:	Dalai Lama urges China to take fresh initiative on Tibet.
Next Article:	Sri Lanka Navy sinks rebel freighter.