China Intensifies Pressure as Top Monk Visits Nepal Ahead of Tibetan Studies Conference
Karma Ngawang 
According to TibetanReview.net that China is increasing its involvement in a major international academic conference on Tibetan studies that will take place in Kathmandu next month. After successfully pressing the Central Tibetan Administration to withdraw its official representatives, Beijing is now sending one of its most senior Buddhist monks to Nepal.
Venerable Master Yin Shun is expected to arrive in Kathmandu on 29 July 2026. He holds an important political position as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He is also a former vice president of the Buddhist Association of China and the abbot of the Zhong Hua Chinese Buddhist Monastery in Lumbini. Master Yin is already well known in Nepal and has visited the country several times in the past.
His arrival comes at a sensitive moment. Only days earlier, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming met Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai. During the meeting, the ambassador expressed concern that the 17th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) might become a platform for criticism of China. Shortly after this discussion, the Tibet Policy Institute, the research body of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamshala, decided not to send its official five-member team.
The Tibet Policy Institute had planned to send its director and four researchers. The decision to withdraw was taken to avoid creating difficulties for the Nepalese government and to allow the conference to continue without further diplomatic tension. Individual Tibetan scholars who had already registered may still attend in a private capacity.
The IATS seminar is scheduled to run from 23 to 29 August 2026. It is being jointly organised by the Himalaya Centre for Asian Studies at Kathmandu University and the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Around 700 participants from 39 countries are expected. The largest group will come from the United States, with about 150 delegates. China will have the second-largest presence, with nearly 100 scholars attending, including researchers from Lhasa, Sichuan, Qinghai and Beijing.
Organisers have expressed surprise at the high level of Chinese attention. Professor Sagar Sharma, one of the co-conveners, pointed out that many Chinese experts in Tibetan history, culture, literature and religion are already taking part. He stressed that the event is purely academic and that all arrangements are being made in coordination with Nepalese government agencies.
The International Association for Tibetan Studies is a respected global academic organisation founded in 1979 at the University of Oxford. It focuses on scholarly research into Tibetan language, religion, history, philosophy and art. It has no political agenda. Previous seminars have been held in different countries, and this will be the first time Nepal hosts the event.
Despite the academic character of the conference, China remains highly sensitive to any official link with the Dalai Lama’s exile administration. Beijing views such participation as a challenge to its control over Tibet. The sequence of events — diplomatic pressure, the withdrawal of the exile think tank, and the sudden visit of a senior Chinese monk with political standing — shows how carefully China monitors discussions related to Tibet.
Nepal is once again in a delicate position. As a neighbour of China with a large Tibetan refugee community, it must balance its foreign relations carefully. The conference is still expected to proceed with strong international participation. Yet the growing Chinese interest highlights the continuing political weight attached to any serious discussion of Tibetan culture and history, even in a purely academic setting.
This episode reveals the wider challenge facing independent scholarship on Tibet. When a non-political academic gathering draws such intense attention from a powerful neighbour, it raises important questions about academic freedom and the limits of open inquiry in the region.
About the Author
Jun Hao 
