On March 20th, Prime Minister KP Oli will embark on a week-long visit to China. Already, many have suggested what we should be asking from China. But hardly anyone has written what to offer to our northern neighbor. Sadly we are stuck with the view that we are a poor country and we gauge the success/failure of our leaders' foreign visits based on what tangible material gifts they bring from abroad.Maybe we should be asking and debating how the prime minister's upcoming visit to China can be made memorable—in the sense that it will shatter the stereotypes that exist in China vis-à-vis Nepal and usher a new era in Nepal-China relations. Instead of going to China with a begging bowl like his predecessors, perhaps PM Oli should go there with gifts from Nepal which in turn will hopefully help the Chinese leaders and the public see Nepal in a new light, and make them take us a bit more seriously.
First of all, Nepal needs an image makeover in China. If a press conference can be held by a visiting prime minister in Beijing, the Chinese public will be able to see us in a new light. The perfect venue for such press conference will be the Yonghe Lama Temple. Built in the early 18th century as the residence of the crown prince Yongzheng (who later became an emperor) and turned into a lamasery after his death in 1735, the temple complex is visited by many pilgrims from China and abroad. Nepal is also associated with the temple.
The main attraction of the temple is a giant 26m (eight meter of which is underground) statue of the future Buddha, Maitreya, carved from a single piece of sandalwood. Although the statue was a gift from the Seventh Dalai Lama to Emperor Qianlong, the statue was carved in Nepal and took three years to reach Beijing. According to Kevin Greenwood's PhD dissertation, Yonghegong: Imperial universalism and the art and architecture of Beijing's Lama Temple, submitted to the University of Kansas in 2013, six Nepali artists went to work in the reconstruction of the temple complex in 1744 and stayed there until the project was complete in 1747.
During their stay in Beijing, they not only worked on the temple, they also trained the Chinese artists on Tibetan Buddhist art. "The general lack of awareness in Chinese and Western and Nepali scholarship of the importance of these skilled artists and craftsmen may be due to the fact that many of the relevant court documents were written in Manchu" (italics mine). However, according to Greenwood, the records from Manchu have already been translated into Chinese by a Chinese scholar, Luo Wenhua, in 2005.
Now, this aspect of the temple's history is yet to be vigorously promoted in both China and Nepal. Therefore, a visit to the temple complex for worshipping (or if his communist credentials bars him from doing so, then for a photo-op) by PM Oli and a brief press conference there would do much to highlight that Nepal, despite its recent poverty, was at one time a leading authority on Tibetan Buddhist arts. Maybe PM Oli should tell the reporters there that his government will find out more about the artists and would like to gift either their statues or an inscription highlighting their contributions written in Nepali, Newari, Chinese and English to be kept inside the temple premises.
It will be a major soft power boost for Nepal. Likewise, the prime minister should not hesitate to be grateful to the Chinese workers who lost their lives while working on various infrastructure development projects in Nepal. If possible the prime minister should meet their family members, and tell them that the contribution of their deceased kin is deeply appreciated by all Nepalis and that he will make sure their sacrifice is properly recognized. Given the record keeping system (dang an) and the control of movement and internal migration through the hukuo system employed by the communist government, the Chinese state will have no difficulty tracking the families of the workers who lost their lives while helping us.
The prime minister is addressing students at the Renmin University, which is certainly commendable. However, he should also make time to meet the professors and students from the universities in Beijing and nearby cities who are specializing on South Asia. If nothing else, we can gift the universities books on South Asia and Nepal. Maybe the prime minister can announce generous research grants/scholarship schemes to professors and students focusing on South Asia, Sanskrit and Nepal to conduct their research in Nepal. We are a poor country, but not so poor that we can't even establish a special scholarship scheme for those learning Sanskrit, Nepali and/or about Nepal and South Asia.
Similarly, Prime Minister Oli should also initiate meaningful dialogue with his Chinese counterpart to change the way the youth exchange program works between the two countries. Instead of shepherding a bunch of people to China or having the Chinese acrobats entertain the Nepali VIPs, both sides need to focus on exchanging high school and college students and make them learn about the host country's culture. To create our first batch of China experts, the prime minister can announce scholarships for two deserving Nepali students to spend a year at the Johns Hopkins Nanjing Institute, a relatively free academic institute where students are more likely to learn about real China than in Chinese government-funded universities.
PM Oli can also offer a Nepal Study Center to promote research and studies on Nepal in Beijing and ask the Chinese side to open a similar center in Kathmandu. The centers should be allowed to run independently, despite their support from respective governments, and should only focus on academics, unlike the pseudo-academic propaganda outfit that is the Confucius Institute.
The prime minister should refrain from asking Chinese help to build a monument or two, a hospital or a stretch of highway. Even if the Chinese side offers that, he should politely decline as Nepal is capable of building them itself. Our focus should now be mega-projects such as power plants, highways and dams and we should not ask China to foot the bill. We can develop those as joint-projects between the two countries, with 50 percent loan from China and 50 percent of our investment. Let the development work from now on be a symbol of cooperation between the two countries, not of our dependence on China.
Last but not the least, the PM, as many have highlighted already, is traveling to China at a sensitive time. Therefore, he should not forget the advice given to the US leaders by a prominent Harvard Sinologist in the 1970s, "when dealing with China you shouldn't be put in the position of becoming either an enemy or a best friend; instead you should always reject the two extremes and take the middle road." And at a time when Nepal's relations with India cannot be said to be very good and China is emerging as an aggressive player in Asia and is getting active in Nepali politics, PM Oli would be doing us a huge favor by heeding the late professor's advice by not making commitments and comments that can jeopardize our long-term interests. The prime minister should also tell the Chinese side politely but firmly to refrain from overtly and covertly interfering in Nepal's domestic politics.
If he can manage even half of this, his visit would be a huge success and would define the relationship between the two countries for years to come. So PM Oli, set aside your begging bowl, go with your head held high, thank the Chinese for their generosity, make small but meaningful gifts, and tell the Chinese people that we are very much part of their glorious history and culture. For once make us proud, Prime Minister Oli. Hope that's not asking for much.
trailokyaa@yahoo.com
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