Nepal complains after India and China agree to resume a religious pilgrimage through a contested Himalayan pass.

A long-running border dispute between Nepal and India has flared up after New Delhi announced the resumption of a religious pilgrimage through a contested Himalayan pass.

Kathmandu’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged a protest against India on Sunday, criticising New Delhi for resuming the pilgrimage. The Lipulekh Pass, which sits where Nepal meets India and Tibet is claimed by Nepal based on the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli, which it entered into with India’s British colonial rulers to define its western border.

In its complaint, the ministry stressed that the territories of Limpiadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani are part of Nepal, “a position on which the government remains clear and firm”.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded by asserting that Lipulekh has been used by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bon followers for the Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet since 1954.

“This is not a new development,” a spokesman said. “India has consistently maintained that such claims are neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence. Such unilateral artificial enlargement of territorial claims is untenable.”

The dispute reignited when India announced on Thursday that it had agreed with China that the pilgrimage via Lipulekh would resume. It was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the plan, 500 Hindu pilgrims will travel through the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand to cross into China at the Lipulekh Pass. Others will use a separate route through the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim.