China to allow Mansarovar Yatra through Nathu La

China will again allow pilgrims from India to visit Kailash-Mansarovar through Nathu La in Sikkim – a route, which it had shut in June 2017 in the wake of the face-off in Doklam Plateau.

New Delhi and Beijing are in touch to arrange the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in summer this year, as both sides are trying to bring the bilateral ties back on track. The Ministry of External Affairs will soon seek applications from people for the pilgrimage to the holy place in Tibet Autonomous Region. The 'yatra' is likely to take place between June and September this year.

V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that Chinese Government had already confirmed “resumption” of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Nathu La route this year.

China last year had not allowed the pilgrims from India to travel to Kailash Mansarovar through Nathu La in Sikkim. The first batch comprising 44 of the total 350 pilgrims with visas issued by the Embassy of China in New Delhi had reached near Nathu La and would have had entered the communist country's Tibet Autonomous Region on June 20 last year. But after the face-off between Indian Army and People's Liberation Army of China in Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan had started on June 18, Beijing had declined to allow the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims to enter into China through this route. The pilgrims, who had opted the old route through Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand, however, had been allowed to carry on the 'yatra' without any hassle.

The face-off ended on August 28 after both sides agreed to withdraw additional troops from the face-off site as well as to restore the status quo on the scene near India-China-Bhutan tri-junction boundary point.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took it up with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi when they had a bilateral meeting on the sideline of a Russia-India-China trilateral meeting in New Delhi in December 2017.

“This matter was raised by the Government with the Chinese government, including during the meeting of the External Affairs Minister with the Chinese Foreign Minister in December 2017,” Singh informed the Lok Sabha in a written response to a query. “Subsequently,” he added, “the Chinese Government has confirmed resumption of Yatra on this route.”

Since 1980s, the MEA has been organizing an “official” Kailash Mansarovar Yatra every year, in accordance with bilateral pacts between India and China.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in New Delhi in September 2014 saw China finally accepting the long-pending request from India to open another route for Kailash Manasarovar Yatra as an alternative to the one via Lipulekh Pass, which not only requires trekking for several days, but also turns worse if the weather turns inclement.

The new route for the pilgrimage through Nathu La was opened in 2015. It was then hailed by both New Delhi and Beijing as an important confidence building measure initiated by the both governments.