Last week, there was an undercurrent of tension in certain diplomatic circles in Kathmandu after information of the China-backed Panchen Lama visiting Nepal was leaked. Beijing has projected Panchen Lama as the successor to Dalai Lama, a characterisation rejected by Western countries as well as Tibetans refugees in exile.

According to three government officials from different ministries and agencies, as soon as the information of the Panchen Lama’s likely visit in mid-December—to attend a function in Lumbini and later an event in Kathmandu—was leaked, officials from Home and Tourism ministries started poring over the list of each and every passenger travelling in chartered flights from Chengdu to Lumbini via Air China. (The tip-off was that he would be travelling via Air China.)

The Panchen Lama was supposed to fly to Lumbini directly from Beijing, along with his security guards and other officials. As of Wednesday evening, no new approval has been sought to land an aircraft in Lumbini with Beijing as its point of origin. Instead, a pre-approved flight on the route was cancelled on the same day, said officials at the Ministry of Tourism.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation gave the approval to organise the religious function in Lumbini and in Kathmandu under the banner of Nanhai Buddhism Round Table–2024.

“We could not spot his name anywhere but he might have multiple passports with multiple names and identities,” one home ministry official who was involved in the verification process said. “There are several ways to disguise identity and so we were cautious as well as alert.”

Even on Wednesday morning, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, Home Secretary Gokarna Mani Duwadi, and acting foreign secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai, among other senior officials, were engaged in a verification process to ascertain whether the Panchen Lama, whose name is Gyaincin Norbu, was actually travelling to Nepal to attend some function.

“He [Panchen Lama] has been trying to visit Nepal for the past ten years and he especially wanted to come here on Buddha Jayanti,” Lyarkal Lama, vice-chairman of the Lumbini Development Trust, told the Post. “He is such a powerful person, he can come here only with the permission of our prime minister.”

Lyarkal will be in Lumbini on December 14 where a special religious function is being held. “As the Panchen Lama is a high-profile Chinese leader equivalent in rank to the Chinese vice president it was impossible for us to give him security,” said Lyarkal. “Such security arrangements are a matter to be settled between two governments.”

Lyarkal said that the Panchen Lama’s visit could add to Nepal’s geopolitical challenges and as such he might not visit this time.

After pressure started piling up on the government from both in and outside the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy and sought a clarification on whether the Panchen Lama was actually visiting Nepal. It also said that the government would not permit him to visit Nepal due to its policy of maintaining neutrality in religious matters.

“We have not allowed the Dalai Lama to come to Nepal,” a senior security official said. “By the same token, we also can’t allow a similar China-backed religious figure to visit Nepal.” The Dalai Lama as well as the Panchen Lama have tried to visit Nepal several times in the past but each time the Nepal government has stopped them from coming.

The Dalai Lama has the backing of Western countries and most of the Tibetan communities in exile, even though China calls him a “separatist”.

The foreign minister communicated via the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu that it cannot permit Norbu, the Chinese Communist Party-backed Panchen Lama, to visit Lumbini to attend a religious function on December 14, said a senior foreign ministry official.

“At least I have not heard about this,” Home Minister Lekhak told the Post. “There is no information on his visit.”

But it was Lekhak who first came to know about the Panchen Lama’s impending visit to Kathmandu and communicated the same to Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba when she was part of Prime Minister KP Oli’s delegation in China.

At least 227 Chinese monks and officials of the Buddhist Association of China are arriving in Lumbini on chartered AirBus A330 flight later this week. (The Post has seen the flight details.) The Chinese side had asked for the permission for the chartered flight with the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on November 18.

Security sources told the Post that they had the information that the Panchen Lama was likely to visit Lumbini in disguise by hiding among the 227 Chinese monks and officials. If this happened, they feared, it could create a diplomatic and geopolitical crisis.

Four persons aware of this development told the Post that as soon as Prime Minister Oli landed in China on December 2, a communication was received that an Air China chartered flight was coming from Chengdu to Kathmandu in mid-December carrying VIP Buddhist monks.

Later, the information was forwarded to Home Minister Lekhak and Tourism Minister Badri Pandey. Then, Home Minister Lekhak called Foreign Minister Deuba in Beijing to inform her that the China-backed Panchen Lama was visiting Nepal—reportedly, with Prime Minister Oli himself giving the permission for his visit.

After this, Foreign Minister Deuba spoke to Prime Minister Oli and later told Nepali officials that the prime minister was in fact unaware of the Panchen Lama’s visit and he had given no such permission.

The Lumbini Development Trust also flagged the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the trust wrote a letter to foreign ministry about a possible visit of the Panchen Lama to Nepal, the ministry had sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu and sought details of the visit.

The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu denied that the Panchen Lama was visiting Kathmandu. The government of Nepal also told the Chinese Embassy that it will not allow him to visit for multiple reasons, said foreign ministry officials familiar with the development. Bishnu Rimal, chief political advisor to the Prime Minister Oli, said the information that the Panchen Lama is visiting Nepal is “one hundred percent false.”

Foreign Minister Deuba, who is currently on a tour of Europe, told the Post over the phone that news about the visit of the Panchen Lama to Nepal is absolutely incorrect and the government would not allow him to come. “He is not coming,” she said. “When we sought clarification from the Chinese Embassy, it also denied that he was coming.”

Deuba added, “As soon as we got the information about this, we enquired about it with the Chinese Embassy. Even the home minister and other senior officials were trying to fix the issue but they could not verify that the particular person was coming.”

On Tuesday, a 10-member delegation of Chinese monks led by Yin Shun, vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, arrived in Kathmandu and left for Lumbini to lay the ground for the visit of other dignitaries.

They will later join at a function in Kathmandu named 2024 Nanhai Buddhism Round Table on Friday, according to an invitation sent by the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu.

The 2024 Nanhai Buddhism Round Table will convene on December 13, 2024, reads the Chinese Embassy notice sent to the media.

The event, which will be attended by Buddhists from 20 countries, will end on Sunday.