Tibetans say Olympic torch on Everest provocative

A replica Olympic torch is held by a member of the support crew at Everest Base Camp after their climbers reached the summit of the world's highest mountain Mount Everest (C), also known as Qomolangma, in the Tibet Autonomous Region May 8, 2008.

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - Tibetans exiles in India and Nepal reacted with pain and anger at the Olympic torch reaching the Everest peak on Thursday, saying it was a clever ploy by China to reinforce its claim over Tibet.

Many Tibetans in this northern Indian city, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, watched news of the torch's journey to the top of the world on television.

Exiled Tibetan officials said taking the Olympic flame to the Everest peak through Tibet was in bad taste and not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.

"During these times when the situation in Tibet is very grave and grim we felt it is very provocative to take the Olympic torch to the Tibetan side of the mountain," Thubten Samphel, secretary of the exiled government's information department, told Reuters.

"The Chinese are suppressing the Tibetan people ... it is not in harmony with the spirit of the Olympics."

The flame's global relay was dogged by anti-China protests that Beijing says were orchestrated by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

But the Dalai Lama has denied the charge, saying he supported the Games and was happy with China hosting them, a stand that many young Tibetans disagree with.

"The moment I saw the torch lit on top of Mount Everest I felt very hurt," said Tenzin Loseal, an Internet cafe owner.

CHINA JOY, NEPAL ANGER

Thursday's journey of the torch to the summit of Everest was broadcast live on Chinese state television, though with a brief delay.

Clusters of people on their way to work paused at outdoor screens in Beijing's main shopping district to see the torch carried to the top of Everest, some taking pictures with their mobile phones and others applauding while the torch was being lit.

In neighboring Nepal, which has witnessed almost daily anti-China protests, police said they detained 210 pro-Tibet protesters on Thursday.

Monks in maroon robes and shaven-headed nuns wearing saffron singlets shouted "free Tibet" slogans as they protested in front of the consular section of the Chinese embassy in the hill-ringed Nepali capital.

"We condemn the taking of the torch to Everest because by this China wants to show that Tibet is a part of it," said a Tibetan protester who gave his name as Tashi.

Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetans who fled their homeland after the failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

With the torch reaching the Everest peak, Nepal relaxed on Thursday restrictions on climbing the mountain. The restrictions were placed to discourage anti-China protests.

(Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma in Nepal and Claro Cortes in China; Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

(Take a look at the Countdown to Beijing blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)