Chinese invitees to the Global Buddhist Summit in New Delhi, to be held on April 20 and 21, have not yet responded. Even the Dalai Lama has not confirmed his participation at the event supported by the Centre.

This was revealed on Monday during a joint media conference of Union culture minister G. Kishan Reddy and International BuddhistConfederation (IBC) director-general Abhijit Halder. IBC is the host of the summit.

In response to queries, Halder said: “Chinese are not coming. Invitations were sent… From Taiwan, they (two delegates) are coming.”

He added: “An invitation has been sent (to the Dalai Lama) but because of his health I don’t know if he can attend.”

The IBC, promoted by India, began working in 2012 and has caused friction with China in the past, as the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso is one of its patrons and is described on its website as representing “Tibet in Exile”. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Gelugschool — the most dominant of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

He was also the political leader of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshalasince its inception in 1959.He handed over the responsibility to an elected leader in 2011.

Halder later told The Telegraph: “Chinese monks did participate in the international conference of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Shared Buddhist Heritage in Delhi, last month.” TheIBC co-organised that event as well.

The Dalai Lama recently apologised after a video of him kissing a boy on the lips and asking him to suck his tongue went viral. The Tibetan Parliament in Exile suggested that the controversy was an attempt by the Chinesegovernment to vilify the Dalai Lama although it did notexplain how the Chinese were involved. A bandh was enforced in Ladakh on Monday in support of the DalaiLama.

The summit has both academic and theological sessions for which 171 foreign delegates from around 30 countries as well as 150 Indian delegates have registered. Invitations have been sent to prominent Buddhist institutions across the world. The biggest contingent of 30 delegates is from Vietnam, followed by 20 from Sri Lanka.

Halder explained: “For political reasons, some monks found it tough to leave (exit) their countries. They are also coming.”

Details of such monks were not revealed.