"Mustang: A Kingdom on the Edge" is an al-Jazeera documentary from 2011 about Tibetans in Nepal. It has a clear anti-Chinese edge, and is also critical towards the Nepalese "Communist" government, which has strong support from China.
The reporter Steve Chao first visits Upper Mustang, a Nepalese district bordering China (i.e. Chinese-controlled Tibet). Until 2008, Upper Mustang was nominally a separate "kingdom", albeit really controlled by Nepal (it had no international presence). Most of the inhabitants are Tibetans, either native to the area or refugees from China. When the Karmapa escaped in 1999 from Chinese-controlled Tibet to Dharamsala in India, he apparently passed through Upper Mustang. (The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism.) During the Cold War, the CIA trained anti-Communist and anti-Chinese Tibetan rebels in Upper Mustang, an operation that ended in 1974, when US-Chinese relations had improved. Some of the aging ex-rebels still live in the area. There is also a new "youth club" of Tibetan nationalists, far removed from the usual picture of Tibetans as meek and peaceful. They look more like angry young men everywhere! Chao also manages to get an interview with the last "king" of Upper Mustang, Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, who was deposed from his titulary throne in 2008.
China is systematically expanding its influence in Nepal, including in the border regions, where new Chinese-financed highways are planned. Somewhat paradoxically, China has offered substantial amounts of aid to the Tibetans in Upper Mustang, mostly cheap rice, and also trade goods with them. Chao finds a huge pile of Chinese beer cans at the border! He also realizes that the kids in a Tibetan Buddhist monastic school actually eat the rice from China. The "youth club" accuses the Chinese of infiltrating the area with secret agents. China is also training Nepalese border police and security forces. Tibetan activists living in Nepal´s capital Kathmandu accuse the Nepalese government of harassing them.
Chao also mentions the effects of climate change on Upper Mustang. The glaciers in the Himalayas are getting smaller, there is less water in the rivers, and agriculture has become impossible in some areas. I assume this will make the population even more dependent on outside aid in the near future. Despite its relative isolation, Upper Mustang may become a geopolitical hot spot, if India ever decides to decisively challenge China´s ambitions in Nepal...
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