Crowds gather for Dalai Lama visit

Buddhist volunteers wash a road ahead of the Dalai Lama's visit

Thousands of devout Buddhists poured into a remote Indian mountain town, arriving in packed trucks or on foot after trekking for miles along narrow paths for a rare chance to glimpse the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan spiritual leader's week-long visit to the town of Tawang near the Chinese border, has been mired in a diplomatic squabble -- highlighting the growing friction between Beijing and New Delhi.

The neighbours have been embroiled in a border dispute over the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh since 1962, and China has decried the visit and demanded that India stop it.

China regularly protests about the movements of the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of seeking Tibetan independence, and it is especially sensitive to the issue following deadly anti-government riots in the region last year.

But the spiritual leader's visit to Tawang is particularly galling in part because the town's proximity and close links to his native Tibet, which he fled 50 years ago when Chinese troops marched in.

New Delhi insists that the Dalai Lama, who has since lived in exile in India, is an honoured guest and free to visit any part of the country.

However, in an apparent effort to placate China, foreign journalists were barred from travelling to the restricted region.

In Tawang, political sparring seemed irrelevant as the local population prepared to welcome the man they revere as a living god -- his first visit here since 2003.

Many of those flocking to the town were poor villagers from surrounding areas and neighbouring countries who otherwise would be unable to see the Dalai Lama at his base in Dharmsala.

Despite temperatures already dropping below freezing and icy winds, dozens of young volunteers swept the streets in the centre of town while others sprinkled water to settle the clouds of dust. Roads leading from the helipad where the Dalai Lama is expected to land Sunday morning were festooned with colourful Buddhist prayer flags.