By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, September 10: Indo-Tibetan border trade along the old ‘Silk Route’ resumed in 2004 but even after seven years, Indian authorities say that no Tibetan trader has been allowed to enter into India by the Chinese government.
“Though traders from Kinnaur have been going every year, not even a single Tibetan trader has come to India,” a leading Indian newspaper quoted Sanjay Sharma, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Pooh, as saying.
In contrast, every year, more than a score Indian traders from the Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh go to Tibet.
According to the Silk Route trade pact between the two Asian giants, traders can carry 29 listed items which do not attract custom duty.
“We carry rice, oil, gur (jaggerine), tea, spices, utensils and textiles into the Tibet,” said Jeet Ram, an old Indian trader who has been to Tibet on several occasions.
“We also carry the brocade and carpets made by the exile Tibetans in India and it has demand in Tibet as they are not easily available,” Jeet was quoted as saying by The Tribune.
There are three trade routes between Tibet and India, one each in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.
The Indian traders say that local Tibetans in Tibet revere their leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama but keep his photographs hidden for fear of Chinese persecution.
“The reverence that Tibetans have for Dalai Lama is so immense that they embrace us and kiss our hands just because we are from India where Dalai Lama lives, ” Jeet told the newspaper.
