Visits by heads of government are rare in Kathmandu. So the four-hour stopover by China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, on Saturday stirred much debate and was analysed minutely. It comes at a time when Nepal’s relations with its two giant neighbours, India and China, are under more scrutiny than usual.
The plot’s variations can be so subtle that it can be worth looking back over the slow history of foreign relations in the region. Kathmandu has received influences from both north and south since the first millennium AD, but its primary orientation has long been towards India. During the 17th and early 18th centuries the city’s spectacular monuments were built on the proceeds of trade between India and China, trade which was to wither in later centuries.
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