Dondhup Lama of the Serajay Jamyang Choekhorling Monastery in Tawang spent all of Friday supervising a welcome arch for the Dalai Lama at the crossing where the road from the helipad joins the road to Tawang. On the road to the historic town perched at about 10,000 feet in the Eastern Himalayas, ten more welcome arches are in various stages of being raised. Colourful flags, festoons and banners string the town in a warm welcome. ‘Welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama’, reads almost every corner of the town. Along with colourful dariang phans—flags in five different colours, white, blue, orange, green and red—the Indian tricolour too is fluttering in different places.

Sunday is a day Tawang is looking forward to. And it’s not just Tawang. China’s objections over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh have focused the world’s attention on Tawang.

But the 10,000 residents of Tawang are not wasting time debating China’s objections. “Our prime minister has already said in very clear terms that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is India’s most honoured guest. And His Holiness is only visiting one state of the country where he has been staying for so many decades now,” says Guru Tulku Rinpoche, the head priest of the Ganden Namgyal Monastery, popularly known as Tawang Monastery.

Guru Tulku’s view is echoed across Tawang. “Gemi sha mari playa mono,” says local Lobsang Tenda, in the Monpa tongue. “It means we are not scared of China,” he says.

Two weeks after the prime minister’s office cleared the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang, this fast-emerging tourist hotspot in eastern India has undergone a facelift. The local authorities have repaired every pothole on the roads, while the Border Roads Organisation, a wing of the Indian Army, has worked overtime to keep the Tezpur-Bomdila-Tawang road clear.

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