Why time is ripe for India to start pilgrimage diplomacy with China

Pilgrimage is a field to explore with China, as ‘yatras’ always played an important role in India’s relationship with Tibet A few months ago, the Chinese Communist Party expelled Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, two former defence ministers, for corruption. The ‘Pure Crystal Mountain’ lies at 5,735 meters above the sea in the Tsari area of southern Tibet; the Tsari Yatra used to take place every Monkey Year, often special years. Toni Huber, one of the foremost scholars on the subject, wrote a great deal about the site of the pilgrimage, located in India, between Tsari in Tibet and the Upper Subansiri: “The large-scale, 12-yearly circumambulation of Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims around the mountain known as the Rongkor Chenmo, had the character of a state ritual for the Ganden Phodrang. During the 1914 Simla Conference, Bailey, who had mapped the area with his colleague Capt Henry Morshead, informed Sir Henry McMahon about the sensitivity of the issue, and it is probably on their recommendation that a condition was inserted in the border agreement to reassure the Tibetans that the yatra would not be disturbed despite the fact that it was crossing into India’s territory; further, India always facilitated the smooth continuation of the Tsari pilgrimage on the Indian side of the border, at least till the last Rongkor in 1956, which passed off peacefully; unfortunately, since then, the yatris from both sides can’t cross over the border.