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India-China Pilgrimage Revival Triggers Three-Border Himalayan Row
(MENAFN) A decades-old territorial standoff between Nepal and India has flared back to life after New Delhi struck an agreement with Beijing to revive a sacred Hindu pilgrimage route through a bitterly contested high-altitude mountain crossing.
Nepal's Foreign Ministry fired off a formal diplomatic protest late Sunday, dispatching official notes to both New Delhi and Beijing over the unilateral move.
At the heart of the dispute lies Lipulekh, a remote Himalayan pass sitting at the tri-border junction of Nepal, India, and Tibet. While India currently administers the territory, Kathmandu insists the land is rightfully its own.
Nepal's Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that the territories of Limpiadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani are part of Nepal under the 1816 Sugauli Treaty, "a position on which the government remains clear and firm."
New Delhi swiftly pushed back, asserting that Lipulekh has served as a gateway for the Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet since 1954.
"This is not a new development," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said.
"India has consistently maintained that such claims are neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence. Such unilateral artificial enlargement of territorial claims is untenable," he added.
The smoldering dispute was reignited when India announced on April 30 that it would reinstate the Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage through Lipulekh in coordination with China. Under the agreed framework, ten groups of 50 Hindu pilgrims each will travel through the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand before crossing into China at Lipulekh Pass, while a separate stream of pilgrims will take an alternate route through the northeastern state of Sikkim.
The religious corridor is not the only thing being reopened — India and China are also set to restore cross-border trade through the same pass as early as next month, further deepening Kathmandu's concerns over being sidelined in decisions affecting territory it claims as its own.
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