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Indian President Pratibha Patil is likely to kick-start a state visit to mark the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties with China next month by visiting the country's first Buddhist temple.
Analysts said Patil's visit to the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, Henan, before rubbing shoulders with leaders in Beijing would serve as a gesture to ease the political and security tensions between the emerging powers by underscoring long-running cultural exchanges.
Patil had planned to fly to Beijing on the first leg of her state visit, which was scheduled for May 26-29, according to Indian media reports. But this month New Delhi suddenly proposed a change in her itinerary to give prominence to the White Horse Temple, where Buddhism took root in China 20 centuries ago and where an Indian shrine has been built with joint investments by both countries' governments.
The shrine was completed last year with more than 10 million yuan (HK$11.36 million) of investment from India. It is the country's most visible symbol on the mainland. 
Patil is also expected to visit Shanghai for the World Expo.
The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that no information on Patil's visit was available.
Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on India with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said Patil would probably begin her trip by visiting Luoyang. Professor Zhang Guihong, of Fudan University in Shanghai, said starting a state visit with the White Horse Temple would be a symbolic sign.
'Underscoring the long history of cultural exchanges between the two countries could help ease the current political and security tensions,' he said. 'It's better to start such an important trip with a cultural exchange than with the sensitive issues.'
Built in the Han dynasty in AD68, the White Horse Temple is believed to be the first Buddhist temple established by a Chinese government.
The temple was to commemorate a white horse that helped to carry a Buddhist sutra from India along with two eminent Indian monks on a mission after Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han dynasty had sent his officials to learn more about the religion.
Indian scholars and foreign affairs experts praised the detour, although foreign dignitaries usually call on the leadership in Beijing first before visiting other mainland cities.
'In the fitness of things, the state visit could commence from Luoyang - a big city and a tourist centre - where the Indian president is due to cut the red ribbon.' said C.V. Ranganathan, India's ambassador to China from 1987 to 1991.
'The only hitch I can foresee is the dates and timing of the president's meetings with Chinese leaders in the capital. Usually these appointments are finalised much in advance. But I'm sure  new mutually acceptable and convenient appointments can be arranged by diplomats of the two nations to suit the circumstances.'
Mira Sinha Bhattacharya, a leading scholar at the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi, said there was no harm in visiting the temple first.
'Let's not forget that the Buddhist temple [in Luoyang] is as much China's as India's,' she said.
In April 2005, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, signed a memorandum of understanding permitting the construction in Luoyang of a replica of the Sanchi Stupa  containing Buddhist relics and allowing China to build a memorial to the seventh century Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang in Nalanda, in Bihar  state.
China allotted 6,000 square metres in the White Horse Temple complex for the Indian-built shrine. New Delhi sent men and material for the Buddhist temple which has facilities for worship, lectures, prayers, exhibitions and conferences. 
All the stone used in the project, which symbolises the two nations' common Buddhist heritage and cultural links, was shipped from India.
Bhattacharya recalled that in February 2007 then  foreign minister Li Zhaoxing flew from Beijing to the Bihar capital, Patna, in a Kingair jet to inaugurate the memorial in Nalanda dedicated to Xuanzang. After doing the honours in Nalanda, Li had flown to Delhi for a trilateral summit with the foreign ministers of Russia and India.
Indian diplomats awaiting Beijing's nod for Patil's proposed revised itinerary cite the permission granted to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to visit Xian yesterday before going to Beijing. Art historian Kapila Vatsayan, who conceptualised the two-storey Buddhist temple, said the shrine would bring people of the two countries closer.



Indian leader's temple visit a symbolic sign