Police in India’s eastern Bihar state on Thursday detained a Chinese woman accused of spying and threatening the safety of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.
Police in the village of Bodh Gaya, which the Dalai Lama is currently visiting, said the Chinese woman entered India in 2020 on a visa that should only have permitted her to stay for 90 consecutive days.
“She has violated that, and now further action of deporting her will be taken. She came to Bodh Gaya on December 22,” a police official said.
“We got inputs about a Chinese woman overstaying in India who was in Bodh Gaya as a nun. During enquiry and screening of her documents, it was revealed a ‘leave India’ notice has been served on her.” Senior Superintendent of Police Harpreet Kaur told the Times of India (TOI).
TOI quoted police reports that said the woman’s name is Song Xiaolan. Song claimed to be in Bodh Gaya because she wanted to “attend the Dalai Lama’s teachings.” The police were rather vague about exactly why they considered her to be a security risk, citing no offense beyond her visa overstay.
“We cannot rule out suspicion of her being a Chinese spy,” Kaur said before the woman was taken into custody.
The Indian Express on Friday doubted there was much more to the story beyond Song being an odd character, and possibly a sincere devotee of Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, who was investigated during a time of heightened security and discovered to be in violation of her visa terms.
According to the Indian Express, Song paid a visit to Nepal at some point during her three-year overstay in India, befriended a Nepalese woman during her “spiritual quest,” and was traveling in her company when both were detained by the police in Bodh Gaya. The woman told police they had decided to settle down close to the Dalai Lama’s permanent residence in Dharamshala, India.
The Dalai Lama has lived in Dharamshala since he fled Chinese-occupied Tibet during the uprising of 1959. He has stated his intention to live in Dharamshala for the rest of his life. He has long been in the habit of paying an annual visit to the historic Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, although he had to skip the last two years due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
The Chinese government does not care for the current Dalai Lama, whose given name is Tenzin Gyatso, and intends to name his next reincarnation in defiance of Tibetan Buddhist tradition. China even passed a law stating the Dalai Lama is not allowed to reincarnate into any body that is not approved by the Chinese Communist Party. The Dalai Lama said he might demonstrate his contempt for this law by not reincarnating at all.