Tibetan Conference in Nepal Moved Online by Request of Nepali Authorities

Human Rights Research Center
11 minutes ago
5 min read

September 6, 2026

NOTE: The writer prefers to use lower case “c” and “p” to challenge the authority of the Chinese communist party (Ccp).

HRRC condemns the suppression of academic freedom and the repression against overseas Tibetans to preserve their identity and to practice their culture and religion.

Lama reading in the street of Lhasa, Tibet [Image Credit: Raimond Klavins/Unsplash]

The International Association for Tibetan Studies seminar (IATS), set to be hosted by the Himalaya Centre for Asian Studies at Kathmandu University, was cancelled at the request of Nepali government officials without any explanation.

The seminar, scheduled from August 23 to 29, was expected to attract over 700 participants, including scholars from China. After the abrupt cancellation, the seminar was rescheduled to take place on the same dates but online. In response, Tibet Policy Institute, a think tank established by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan exiled government, withdrew from the seminar.before the announcement that the conference would be moved online in early August.

Held every three years since its founding at the University of Oxford in 1979, the seminar is promoted as a non-political academic symposium.

Kathmandu Post reported that at a meeting held between Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming and Nepal Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai on July 21, Zhang raised concerns that the seminar would include representatives from CTA and that, “some individuals could speak against China and in support of Tibet”. Zhang urged the Nepali authorities to ensure that “no such things happen.” The proximity of Nepal to China increased Chinese concerns over the seminar.

Representatives from CTA had been past participants of IATS seminars, previously held in Europe, the USA, and Mongolia. The 2026 conference is the largest ever, and first ever conference to be held in Nepal, which has a large number of Tibetan Buddhists and Tibetan refugees.

Nepal shares strong cultural and religious connections with Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Nepal hosts one of the largest Tibetan exile communities, apart from Dharamshala, India, and the Tibetan community in Nepal celebrated Dalai Lama’s 91st birthday earlier this summer on private occasions.

Beijing’s presence over Nepali tourism, trade, and transportation under the Belt and Road Initiative have placed Nepal in the crossroads of geopolitical struggles between China and India, as observed by critics. Bordering the Himalayas, Nepal remained isolated for centuries, and despite Nepali authorities’ vow to remain independent, it maintains ties with both India and China. Debt concerns and economic constraints from Beijing within the framework of Belt and Road Initiative have raised debates about whether Beijing could further influence Nepal’s internal policies. For example, a Tibetan theatre playing stories of Tibetan refugees was canceled in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2018, ahead of Nepali diplomats' visit to China, which was described by local media as the move was to not anger Beijing.

The seminar and the celebration of Dalai Lama’s birthday have sparked concerns from Nepali politicians questioning whether the government has loosened its One-China commitments. Some critics expressed their concerns that the seminar’s focus on promoting Tibetan language, culture, and history could be politically characterised by Beijing as “pro-Dalai Lama” and, therefore, presumably “anti-China.”

Human rights experts worry that cancellation of the IATS seminar amid pressure from the Chinese government will result in more difficulties in Nepal for Tibetan exiles. Historically, China’s pressure on the Nepali government regarding Tibet has resulted in restrictions on Tibetan refugees’ religious and cultural practices.

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), an advocacy group based in the USA, claimed that the cancellation was part of a broader move by Beijing to expand its power to narrate Tibetology. The Chinese government aims to expand state narratives about its legitimacy over Tibet and to tighten overseas representations of Tibet. ICT highlighted that one of the seminar participants is the Ccp-funded China Tibetology Research Center, whose mandate is to publish narratives that reflect “Tibetan studies with Chinese characteristics.” ICT claims that including this group serves to meet Ccp’s assimilation agenda on ethnic unity and to categorize Tibetology as a political tool instead of academic ethnology.

Tibetan Buddhism and its influence in China

China’s desire to control the succession of Tibetan Buddhism is related to the strategic control over its ethnic demography. Tibetan Buddhism is widely practiced among Mongolians and Tibetans, and both nationalities share strong historical and cultural ties dating back to the Mongolian Empire.The Tibetan and Mongolian culture spheres exist beyond its two autonomous regions and both plateaus consist of half of China (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The connection between the Tibetan cultural spheres and Mongolian cultural spheres. [Image credit: Jingwu Show youtube channel — Figure 1. The connection between the Tibetan cultural spheres and Mongolian cultural spheres. [Image credit: *Jingwu Show youtube channel*

Historically, Tibet and Mongolia consist of four supreme spiritual leaders over the regions—two for Tibet, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama; one for Inner Mongolia, Changkya Khutuktu; and one for Outer Mongolia, Jebysundamba Khutuktu (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. The four supreme leaders of Tibet and Mongolia, and their respective locations [Image credit: Jingwu Show youtube channel] — *Figure 2. The four supreme leaders of Tibet and Mongolia, and their respective locations [Image credit:* *Jingwu Show youtube channel*]

Therefore, securing control over the spiritual figures of Tibetan Buddhism would automatically secure a pathway of governance over ethnic Tibetans and Mongolians peoples, who largely share distinctive cultural and societal practices from Mainland Han Chinese. Those lands consist of fewer populations but offer significant natural resources. China’s control of religious figures can be interpreted beyond its totalitarian claim, but through the lens of cultural demographic and human rights.

Glossary

Advocacy: public support for an idea, plan, or way of doing something:
Assimilation: The process of becoming a part of a country or community, or making a group of people a part of a larger community
Belt and Road Initiative: Chinese president Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy project aimed at strengthening China’s connectivity with the world. It combines new and old projects, covers an expansive geographic scope, and includes efforts to strengthen hard infrastructure, soft infrastructure, and people-to-people ties.
Demography: The demography of an area is the number and characteristics of the people who live in an area, in relation to their age, sex, if they are married or not, etc.
Ethnology: The study of different societies and cultures
Exiled: sent away from your own country, town, etc., especially for political reasons
Geopolitical: Connected with political activity as influenced by the physical features of a country or area, or with the study of the way a country's size, position
Legitimacy: the quality of being legal
Manipulate: to control something or someone to your advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly
Mandate: the authority given to an elected group of people, such as a government, to perform an action or govern a country
Narratives: a particular way of explaining or understanding events
One China Policy: The One China Policy is to recognize the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole, legitimate government of China in 1979
Repression: the act of replacing something, especially something older or more old-fashioned
Romanized: a writing system based on the Latin alphabet
Prominent: very well known and important
Reincarnation: The belief that a dead person's spirit returns to life in another body
Suppression: the act of preventing something from being seen or expressed or from operating
Tibetology: The academic study of the history, language, religion, culture, and politics of Tibet and the broader Tibetan cultural sphere

References

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Tibetan Conference in Nepal Moved Online by Request of Nepali Authorities

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