TIBET’S GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), has decided not to send an official delegation to the 17th International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) conference in Kathmandu, amidst growing pressure from China. The seven-day long international conference, world’s leading forum for Tibetan studies, is scheduled to take place in Nepal for the first time from August 23, 2026 onwards. However, researcher scholars from the CTA’s think tank, Tibetan Policy Institute (TPI), have withdrawn from the conference owing to China’s indirect interference.

How China's Pressure on Nepal Reportedly Unfolded 

Initially, the CTA had planned to send five representatives from TPI, led by then-director Dawa Tsering. This delegation included researchers Dr Chewang Dorjee, Dr Tsering Dolma, Dr Karma Tenzing Dhalia and Dr Rigmon Tsering Samdup. However, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it had not received any formal registration of any of the TPI’s participants.  

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Preliminary registration lists suggested that certain adjustments were made following China's intervention. However, a senior security official, as quoted by an India Today report, claimed that when China's Ambassador to Nepal, Zhang Maoming, met Nepali Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai on July 20, 2026, concerns were raised about the CTA delegation’s participation in the IATS conference.

“The ambassador did not ask for the conference to be cancelled, but expressed concern that it could become a platform for anti-China discourse. Perhaps to avoid placing additional pressure on the Nepalese government and to ensure the conference proceeds smoothly, the CTA decided not to send its official representatives,” the official said. 

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While the CTA is not participating in the conference officially, its scholars who have already registered may still partake in the conference in their personal capacity. 

The CTA and the Chinese administration have been repeatedly at logheads since the Tibetan autonomous government sought exile in India’s Dharamshala town. 

According to the conference organizer, participants from Mainland China are coming in good numbers. Out of more than 700 delegates from 39 countries who registered to participate in the conference, around 150 are coming from the United States. In terms of participation, China is the second-largest country.

Researchers from universities across China — including Lhasa, Sichuan, Tsinghua, and Peking — will be participating. Representatives from the China Tibetology Research Center, which conducts research on Tibet within China, along with Buddhist monastery representatives from India, Taiwan, and Japan, are also expected to attend the gathering in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Indian Columnist Brahma Chellaney Weighs In

Expressing his opinions on the matter, Brahma Chellaney, an Indian Columnist and a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, remarked that this development underscores China's growing diplomatic leverage over Nepal. Chellaney remarked how China indirectly pressured the CTA from withdrawing from the conference, while sending its own officials and scholars from its state institutions, such as the China Tibetology Research Center, as participants. This, he remarks, denied having “ethnic Tibetan voices” in a forum that is meant to shape international production and dissemination of knowledge about Tibet.

Chellaney terms this development as Beijing's “asymmetric approach” to Tibetan studies — denying institutional representation to ethnic Tibetan voices while granting a prominent platform to state-run Chinese institutions. He also says that Nepal indirectly ousting the CTA from the Tibetan Conference underscores China's growing diplomatic leverage over the country.

Chellaney remarked how China has repeatedly exerted its focus on Nepal to get them to do its bidding. The columnist remarked how Beijing routinely uses Belt and Road Initiative projects and other economic inducements to pressure Kathmandu into policing Tibetan exile activities, suppressing protests and imposing strict restrictions on Tibetan exile institutions.

About the IATS Conference

 The International Association for Tibetan Studies Conference is universally recognized as the world's premier conference on Tibetan history, language, culture, philosophy and religion. Its primary aim is to boost Tibetan research. 

The conference is held every three-four years, and its 17th edition in 2026 marks the first time the conference is scheduled to take place in Nepal. Previously, other Asian countries have held the IATS conference, such as Japan in 1989 and Mongolia in 2013. Local co-hosts of the conference include the Himalayan Centre for Asian Studies (HI-CAS) under Kathmandu University and the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI). 

(Proofread by Vaishnavi Sivadasan)

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