Nepal and China: Reading the Present through History

For the past two years, we at the Nepal Economic Forum have been pondering one question: After so much talk about the potential of the Nepal-China relationship, why does so little of it show up in practice? This is what our Nepal-China 101 study set out to do, understanding the relationship between the two countries in terms of business, tourism, and renewable energy from a neutral perspective, looking at the on-the-ground situations. However, to understand the present realities that shape that relationship, it is the history the countries share that should be understood. In this piece, I try to analyze the history Nepal shares with China through three Cs: Civilizational, Cultural, and Commercial.

Civilizational Ties

Nepal’s history with China runs way back, even before the nation state appeared on the map. Nepal’s first recorded instance of a systemic group controlling the state was the Kirat dynasty, reported to have ruled the Kathmandu Valley. We are currently in year 5086 of the Kirat calendar. In the Kirat ritual, the places where ancestors are said to have walked include lakes in present-day China and Central Asia, and scholars are now exploring civilizational links between the Kirats and the ancient Chinese civilization. When the Chinese civilization was flourishing, Nepal already had a link thousands of years ago. Thus, to look at Nepal’s relationship with China, we have to go beyond the imposed history of Nepal being a country that was started by the Shahs in 1769 AD.

Additionally, Buddhism has been the connective tissue for at least 2,500 of those years, and it left physical evidence most Nepalis have never seen. Last year I traveled to Kyirong, the city where the seventh century Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo brought his newly wedded wife, the Nepali princess Bhrikuti. The Phakba Lhakang monastery there, built in Nepali architectural style, still houses the image of Avalokiteshwara she carried with her. The wedding rituals were performed nearby in Gyephuk Village, later the meditation site of Guru Padmasambhava and now a popular pilgrimage stop. Nepali artists began moving north after that marriage, and in one form or another they never really stopped; Nepali craftsmen still work across China today.

Cultural Ties

In Beijing, a plaque at the white pagoda at Miaogying stands acknowledging it was ‘built under the supervision of Nepali architect Araniko in 1271’. This in itself is the clearest monument of the migration to China. The temple has a dominating Buddhist stupa in the Newa architecture of the Kathmandu valley. Perhaps Araniko is the most prominent Nepali in history whose biography is among the very few foreigners mentioned in Chinese history books. He was given the title of the Duke of Liang, and a memorial stela marks the spot where he was cremated in Hsiang Sheng near Beijing. Araniko is just one example of the notable migration of architectural ideas and skills across borders. For instance, I always reiterate the fact that for me, the hutongs or courtyards and alleys in Beijing are reflective of the bahas of the Kathmandu Valley.
Although such cultural ties have existed for a long time, there are still so many historical facts we are unaware of. For instance, during my school days in India, our textbooks did not have the fact that Mongol emperor Kublai Khan introduced Buddhism as a state religion in China. He is referred to as the patron in the country’s history, even appointing the Sakya Lama as Imperial Preceptor, a role his successors extended to the Sakya Lama Drogon Chogyal Phagpa, who carried the title Dishi, ‘Teacher of the Emperor’. It was the same Sakya who introduced Araniko to Kublai Khan. The imperial embrace of Buddhism created a market for Newa craftsmen and traders that amounted to a second wave of migration from the Kathmandu Valley, generations after the one Bhrikuti had begun.
This history is still being uncovered. Dr. Naresh Shakya’s recent book, Medieval Buddhist Painting in Nepal, documents his discovery of Newa-style Paubha paintings in the caves of Dunhuang and beyond. The Araniko Project, built by Nepalis who have taken the trouble to learn the Chinese language and study in China directly, is another instance of the same effort to recover this shared history rather than leave it to be written by others.

Commercial Ties

History also shows that the relationship between Nepal and China is certainly not a product of geopolitics. This gives the present moment and the relationship real weight. Nepal was prospering centuries ago, when China and India were large, rich empires, precisely because it sits between them. The two countries are projected to be the world’s largest economies by 2050, once again. When we draw a line between Mumbai and Beijing,two metropolises in what will soon be the world’s two largest economies, we can see that Kathmandu sits right in the middle. That position holds immense economic potential, we just need to actively work on capitalizing on it.

Conclusion

This is where the Nepal-China 101 study we did at NEF comes in. Looking at this rich history between the neighbors, we understand that the binding constraints on Nepal’s economic relationship with China are not primarily Chinese, Indian, or geopolitical. They are Nepali. The factors within Nepal’s controls from discussions on Power Trade Agreements for electricity sharing that lead to nowhere, to lacking export mechanisms that fail to take advantage of the zero tariff provisions all point to issues of institutional failure rather than a lack of access.
These institutional failures have haunted the country for a long time. However, what is more haunting is the rising cost of leaving the issues unaddressed while witnessing both our neighbors grow exponentially across various sectors. The question this report poses is not whether Nepal should deepen its engagement with China. It is whether Nepal has built what it needs to benefit from the engagement it already has.