Border Bonhomie?

India, China push religious tourism in disputed border areas to increase people-to-people contact and improve relations

- Abhishek Bhalla

Opening up places of religious importance on each side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for civilians is one of the recent confidence building measures under consideration by India and China.

In the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh which is only one of the eight disputed places under Indian control there are 108 waterfalls considered holy in Tibetan culture common to beliefs of civilian population on both sides.

An area is put in the category of disputed where both sides acknowledge that there is no consensus.

The places where there is a claim due to perception differences fall in the category of sensitive places.

Similarly, on the other side, under the Chinese control, there are several caves that have religious sentiments attached for people living on either side of the Line of Actual Control.

Chinese, on their side, have put up big screens and, through high resolution cameras, people on the other side can get a view of the holy waterfalls through a live feed on the screens.