Dalai Lama criticised a new railway linking Tibet with China's densely populated east, saying it had led to more outsiders flooding the region.
NEW DELHI: Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday criticised a new railway linking Tibet with China's densely populated east, saying it had led to more outsiders flooding the region.
The Dalai Lama said in a speech marking the 48th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that there was nothing wrong with infrastructure development of the deeply poor region.
"However, it is a source of deep concern that ever since the railway line became operational (last July), Tibet has seen a further increase in Chinese population transfer," he said in a speech posted on his official website.
The Dalai Lama was speaking in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala where he has lived since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
China sees the 1,142-kilometre (710-mile) railway as an important tool in modernising and developing Tibet, which has been part of China since Chinese troops occupied the region in 1950.
However, critics say that the line is allowing the Han Chinese, the national majority, to flood into Tibet, leading to the devastation of the local culture as well as accelerating environmental degradation of the pristine region.
There has been a "further deterioration of its (Tibet's) environment, misuse and pollution of its water and exploitation of all natural resources, all causing huge devastation to the land and all those who inhabit it," the Dalai Lama said.
The anniversary was marked in India by anti-Chinese protests in various parts of the country. In New Delhi, some 50 demonstrators made a bid to scale the walls of the Chinese embassy but were dragged away by police and put in police vans, an AFP photographer said.
Police, however, said none of those taken away was arrested. The Dalai Lama insists he only wants autonomy for Tibetans under Chinese rule, and not independence, arguing that remaining part of the communist state is in the economic interests of the Tibetan people.
However, China has repeatedly said it does not believe that he has abandoned hopes of independence for the Himalayan region.
The Dalai Lama called on Saturday for "genuine" regional autonomy for all Tibetans. He said that while the Chinese constitution promised regional autonomy to minority nationalities, the guarantee was not "implemented fully."
"What happens on the ground is that large populations from the majority nationalities have spread into these minority regions," he said.
"Consequently, there is a danger of the languages and rich traditions of the minority nationalities becoming gradually extinct," he said.
The Dalai Lama added that there were many in China who wanted him to "make a pilgrimage to China and give teachings there."
His statement came after the governor of Tibet said in Beijing last Thursday that the Dalai Lama's hopes of returning to Tibet were "very distant."
"He has to abandon independence calls and also his demands for a high degree of autonomy for Tibet," said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Dalai Lama's envoys have held several rounds of talks with Chinese officials since 2002 to push for autonomy and the return of the spiritual leader to Tibet.
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