The Dalai Lama's arrival here highlighted a lingering border dispute between India and China, exposed Beijing's ongoing sensitivities over Tibet, and raised questions over who would succeed him as the region's spiritual leader.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said last week that the trip "once again exposes the nature of the Dalai Lama as anti-China."

The Dalai Lama, however, insisted that the accusation was "baseless" and that he was seeking only to promote religious values, peace, and harmony. "My visit here is nonpolitical," he said after his arrival.

For the residents of Tawang, it seemed purely religious. The streets were lined with prayer flags and banners welcoming the Dalai Lama, and thousands braved the cold weather and biting wind to attend his five-day visit of prayer meetings and lectures on Buddhism.

"It made us very happy to catch a glimpse of him. Nobody is more important to us than him. The Dalai Lama is our god," said Karmayacha, who uses one name and traveled with her family from a village 20 miles away.

The Dalai Lama first came to Tawang, which has close religious and political ties to Tibet, in 1959, when he fled communist rule. He has since made five visits to the town, the last in 2003. At that time, he was ill, weary, and suffering from dysentery, but when he finally made it here, he felt safe, he said yesterday.

Some pilgrims arrived yesterday in packed trucks; others walked along narrow paths in the Himalayan foothills for as long as five days to hear a man they revere as a living god speak. The local administration, which expects 25,000 people, erected a small tent city for the pilgrims.

China accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking Tibetan independence and is especially sensitive to protests against its control over the Himalayan region after deadly antigovernment riots there last year.

"The Chinese are highly distrustful of what the Dalai Lama is doing there," said Srinath Raghavan, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.

The visit also highlights worsening tensions between India and China, which have been embroiled in a border dispute over the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh since 1962. The two Asian neighbors are vying for economic and political power in the region.

India's decision to let the Dalai Lama visit Tawang, just weeks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Arunachal Pradesh, is another declaration of its sovereignty over the disputed border area.

For his part, the Dalai Lama no longer appears concerned about angering China since negotiations over his Himalayan homeland have gone nowhere, Raghavan said. "The Dalai Lama really has nothing to lose," he said. "The key thing is for him to be able to preserve Tibetan religion and culture."