TAWANG – When the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh votes in the country’s General Election on April 19, Buddhist monk Changzoe Tashi, who in 1962 had to flee Tawang during China’s attack, says he will not be thinking of the border dispute between India and China at the polling booth.

Instead, the 85-year-old monk told The Straits Times that he will be thinking of which local candidate he likes better in Tawang, a border town about 3,050m above sea level where his monastery is perched on a ridge amid the snow-clad peaks of the eastern Himalayas.