Central Tibetan Administration’s top-elected political leader – the Sikyong,  Penpa Tsering – has reiterated that ‘historically’ China had nothing to do with Tibet and the two have no commonality. Rather, Tibet has centuries-old cultural and religious ties with India.“Even today China, since its invasion of Tibet, has not been able to win hearts of Tibetans,” he added and questioned the development of Chinese-planned dams coming up in Tibet to alter flow of river waters like the Brahmaputra.Tsering, was sworn in as the Sikyong for his second term on May 27 at Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in exile, was in New Delhi.He said: “Tibet has always been an independent country, politically… Till Tibetans inside Tibet are not free, we will continue to struggle”.Historically, we don’t have much relations with the Chinese. “Between 7th to 9th century Tibet was a big empire,” he said on Tuesday evening delivering a lecture on “Dalai Lama’s Guru-Dakshina to Bharat” organised at the India Habitat Centre.Chinese had nothing to do with Tibetans, Tsering argued adding the Mongols became a big power by the end of 12th century and Tibet had developed relations with the Mongols.Mongol King Kublai Khan invaded China in 1271. “The Yuan dynasty in China’ is actually the Mongol empire, it is not a Chinese empire,” Tsering claimed. He cited history saying from 1368 to 1644, the ‘Ming dynasty’ was ruling China, but Tibet had no relations with the Ming’s, except for some religious exchange.Conversely, there have been no wars between India and Tibet. Tsering went on add: “We have a lot to thank India because the script and the religion that defines Tibetan way of life also came from India.”Tsering addressed questions about the succession of the 14 th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. He reminded the audience what the Dalai Lama had announced last year. The Dalai Lama had said the institution of Dalai Lama would continue and reiterated that China would have no role in the process of locating the next reincarnation. He had empowered the Gaden Phodrang Trust held the sole authority to recognise the future reincarnation in consultation with the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.Earlier in 2011 a statement from Dalai lama had cautioned that “no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone (other than the Trust), including those in the People’s Republic of China”.