Tawang, Nov. 8: Within hours of his arrival here this morning the Dalai Lama snubbed China by calling its opposition to his visit “totally baseless” and rejecting its claim on Arunachal Pradesh. “My stand has always been clear — this is an integral part of India.”

The greetings he received from the people, who decked up their homes and lined up the streets with traditional Buddhist offerings, made it a look like a medieval pageant. But he set the tone of the visit straightaway.

For all the Buddhist teachings that he conducts during his stay here, it’s high politics — involving the old, historical question of India, China and Tibet — that will ring above all else. And it will ring long after he ends his visit, when New Delhi and Beijing grapple with it.

Coming at the height of a new strain in India-China relations over Arunachal Pradesh and the Dalai Lama’s visit here, his remarks also reflected his frustrations at the failure of the eighth round of rounds between Beijing and his representatives last year on the issue of his demand for “genuine autonomy” for Tibet.

While China became unusually vocal about its claim on Arunachal Pradesh since 2007, it had not raised the pitch the way it did by objecting to Manmohan Singh’s visit to the state last September. But the Chinese response seemed to have forced a subtle change in New Delhi’s reactions. Not allowing the Dalai Lama to come here would have looked like surrendering to Beijing’s pressure and exposing India’s weakness vis-à-vis the Chinese position.

This backdrop thus made the Tibetan leader’s visit this time politically significant. While maintaining that his visit was “non-political”, he now used it to denounce China’s role in Tibet. “Even the Chinese and Japanese I met recently told me there are soldiers everywhere (in Tibet)”. Talking to reporters at the Tawang monastery, he even made a distinction between the Chinese leadership of an earlier generation and the “hardliners” of today who “have put the brakes on the progress of the Tibetan talks”. He referred to the Nangpala massacre in 2006, when, according to him, the Chinese position on the Tibetan talks started hardening.

Although he didn’t make the comparison himself, he talked of the difference in Tibetans’ experiences in India and China. “Tibetan Buddhists are passing through a very difficult period. Tibetan Buddhism is being practised in a free country here in this area.”

Talking to reporters at the Tawang monastery where he drove from the helipad here, he said the “Tibetan spirit within Tibet is very strong”. “It’s difficult to say how the Tibetan cause has progressed in Tibet.

He recalled that the Chinese did not pursue either him or thousands of his followers when they fled Tibet and crossed over to India in 1959. He recalled that China occupied Tawang in 1962 but withdrew from Indian territory.

For him personally, though he had been here five other times after getting asylum in India, this visit is a historic landmark. It was the Tawang monastery that was his first halt within the Indian territory after he had fled China travelling on horseback for more than a fortnight. And the current visit comes on the 50th anniversary of his flight from Tibet.

He said he was very happy with this visit for two reasons. First, all the way from Ladakh upto here Tibetan Buddhism is being practised. “It’s a hopeful sign that the local people are showing signs of studying local culture”.

The second reason for his happiness, he said, was “an emotional one”. He recalled he had gone through “too much stress, anxiety and a feeling of hopelessness” when he fled Tibet. “As I entered into India an official of the ministry of external affairs — he was a longtime friend — met me at the border. As soon as I saw him I felt safe.”