Kathmandu (AsiaNews) – A Chinese leader's visit to sacred Buddhist shrines is "soaked in hypocrisy: it is merely an obvious bid to tell the world that the Chinese hierarchy has genuine respect for the Buddhist culture and faith, when in reality they are no different from the Taleban of Afghanistan," a Buddhist monk told AsiaNews. He was describing the official visit to Nepal of Tang Jiaxuan, member of China's State Council, which started on 16 March with a "pilgrimage" to Lumbini, the traditional birthplace of Buddha, around 300km south-west of the capital.

The move is seen by many political analysts as a sign of Beijing's intentions with regard to the Nepalese question: playing a role of mediation between King Gyanendra and the Maoist rebels, thus bringing peace to the country.

"This visit is a good sign for peace: it means that even China, which had called the king's anti-democratic moves "an internal affair of Nepal", has realized that unless there is mediation between the two parties, there can be no prospect of peace in the country," Buddhist monk, Sidheshwar Tamang, told AsiaNews.

"All the same, the Chinese are just merchants of everything, even faith and culture. Tang's pilgrimage is actually a business trip, through which he wants to communicate to the King that China does not want to continue being an accomplice in his ongoing abortion of democracy in Nepal. This signal is not being given for ideological reasons, but because Beijing does not want to alienate the world's major powers, mainly India, by its participation in this massacre.

"However, I personally consider Tang's visit to Lumbini as a desecration of this holy land. The Chinese leader has simply rubbed salt on the wounds of millions of helpless Tibetans who have witnessed the destruction and sacrilege of their culture and monasteries since 1959, when the Chinese army invaded Tibet. Chinese leaders are no different from the Muslim Taleban of Afghanistan who demolished the Buddhist relics at Bamiyan."

Pradeep Shakya, a Nepalese tour operator, went further: "Tang's hypocritical visit is an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. The first is to tell Nepalese leaders that only a pursuit reconciliation and non-violence will bring peace, and the second is to sell the idea globally that the Chinese leaders too have reverence for Buddha and so Tibetans have nothing to fear from them. It's a way of trying to counter the Dalai Lama's international standing, which has won the government of the Tibetan diaspora worldwide admiration and respect."

At the end of his visit to the sacred shrine, Tang said he wanted to see Lumbini become a "world centre of peace". Today, the politician is in the capital, where he is set to meet the king and members of the opposition: this is the first time that a member of a foreign government has talks with the rebels while on an official visit.