Central Tibetan Administration’s top-elected political leader – the Sikyong,  Penpa Tsering – has reiterated that ‘historically’ China had nothing to do with Tibet and the two have no commonality. Rather, Tibet has centuries-old cultural and religious ties with India.

“Even today China, since its invasion of Tibet, has not been able to win hearts of Tibetans,” he added and questioned the development of Chinese-planned dams coming up in Tibet to alter flow of river waters like the Brahmaputra.

Tsering was sworn in as the Sikyong for his second term on May 27 at Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in exile, was in New Delhi.

He said: “Tibet has always been an independent country, politically… Till Tibetans inside Tibet are not free, we will continue to struggle”.

Historically, we don’t have much relations with the Chinese. “Between 7th to 9th century Tibet was a big empire," h...