CHINA-NEPAL: TIBETAN AFFAIRS
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Nepal's Embassy in New Delhi withdrew a 'No Objection' letter issued by it permitting the body of the 14th Shamar Rimpoche, a high-ranking monk of the Karma Kagyu sect, to be brought to Nepal from India for the last rites. Nepalese Home Ministry sources have been quoted as saying that the 'No Objection' was withdrawn under Chinese pressure when the latter learnt that a Representative of the Dalai Lama would accompany the body to Kathmandu and that Tibetans in Katmandu were preparing for a rally in the Bouddha area. In an attempt to play down reversal of the decision, Acting Nepali Ambassador to India Krishna Prasad Dhakal claimed that the last rites of a foreign national who died outside the country cannot be performed in Nepal. He was tight-lipped when asked why the Embassy had earlier issued the ‘No Objection letter’ allowing Shamar Rinpoche’s body into Nepal. The 14th Shamar Rimpoche was born in Derge, Tibet, in 1952, and ran the Shar Minub Monastery in Nagarjuna, Kathmandu. He possessed a Bhutanese passport.
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