Dalai Lama tours near Tibet as Beijing fumes

TAWANG, India (AFP) – The Dalai Lama on Tuesday held a second mass prayer meeting close to India's border with Tibet, as China took a fresh swipe at his week-long tour of the Arunachal Pradesh region.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told tens of thousands of devotees gathered in Tawang that Tibetan Buddhism faced great difficulties but that their "religion and culture would survive the challenges."

China protested vigorously before the trip, and on Tuesday a spokesman in Beijing said the Dalai Lama's presence in Arunachal state "fully exposed" his "anti-Chinese nature".

China claims Arunachal state, in northeast India, as its own territory, and also accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split up China by campaigning for an independent Tibet -- a charge he denies.

With ties between India and China strained by the visit, Beijing added on Tuesday that it had "expressed its strong dissatisfaction with India allowing the Dalai Lama's visit to the disputed area."

The Indian government has said that the Nobel laureate, who has lived in exile in the country for 50 years, is free to travel where he wishes, but it has also discouraged reporting of his trip to Arunachal.

On his arrival on Sunday, the Dalai Lama said that his agenda was "non-political" and that Beijing's accusations that he wanted an independent Tibet were "totally baseless".

His trip to the ethnically Tibetan region has triggered widespread celebrations, with large crowds trekking for days to see a man they consider a living God.

"Beijing's reaction to the Dalai Lama?s visit is simply illogical," said Thengu Dhondup, a Buddhist monk from Sella, a village on the Chinese border, who listened to Tuesday's teachings.

"The Dalai Lama is visiting an Indian town and China should have no problems with that."

Tawang -- 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border with China -- was the Dalai Lama's first refuge after he fled across the Himalayas in 1959 in fear of his life following a failed uprising against Beijing's rule.

It is not the Dalai Lama's first return visit to Tawang but the timing has particularly upset Beijing.

Indo-Chinese tensions over Arunachal -- the trigger for a brief but bloody war in 1962 -- have risen in recent months, with reports of troop movements and minor incursions on both sides.

Beijing was also angered by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh touring the state last month during an election campaign.

The United States on Monday said the Dalai Lama was an "internationally respected religious figure" and should be free to travel where he wished.

"He of course has the right to go wherever he wants and talk to people that he chooses to talk to. And we just don't see it in any other way than that," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.