A Chinese nun who followed the Dalai Lama to one of India’s holiest Buddhist sites has been arrested on suspicion of posing a threat to his safety.
Song Xiaolan, 50, was taken into custody after overstaying her visa to India. She was held in Bodh Gaya in Bihar, where Buddha was thought to have achieved enlightenment sitting under a tree.
The Dalai Lama visited the area annually and remained for a month prior to the pandemic. On Thursday of last week, he returned after a two-year hiatus. The woman was detained, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, for "security" reasons.
Harpreet Kaur, senior superintendent of Bodh Gaya police, said it was still not clear what Song had been doing since she entered India in January last year. “We got inputs about a suspected Chinese woman, who has been over-staying in India and presently said to be in Bodh Gaya as a nun. The security personnel deployed for security of the Dalai Lama have been alerted,” Kaur told media agency.
Pilgrims are being vetted and security has been strengthened in the town. Since a bomb detonated in 2018 and two live ones were found during the Dalai Lama's visit, security surrounding the Mahabodhi Temple, the location of the enlightenment, has been tight.
At 87, the Dalai Lama is frail but in good health. He has lived in Dharamshala in the Himalayas, also home of Tibet’s government-in-exile, since fleeing his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising.
His presence in India has been a continuous irritation to China though he now only advocates more autonomy for Tibet rather than independence. This has not stopped China vilifying him as a “wolf in monk’s robes”.