By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, November 16: Chinese government authorities in Driru County have expelled 26 nuns from the Jhada nunnery in Bhenkar village on Nov. 15, a Tibetan source said.
Since September, Chinese work-team officials have been visiting the nunnery to conduct patriotic reeducation. Several nuns who are not listed in Chinese government documents as nuns of the nunnery had to flee into the mountains to evade expulsion.
The same source said that the nuns were forced to denounce the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama during patriotic reeducation campaign. The nuns, according to the source, refused to denounce the Dalai Lama after which the Chinese authorities checked the nunnery register and found 26 nuns whose names were not officially listed.
The Chinese officials then expelled the 26 nuns who pleaded with the authorities to let them continue their Buddhist studies but the officials did not listen.
The nunnery has students from Bhenkar, Trido, Gyalton and Sog.
Jhada Gon Palden Khachoe Ling was built in 1488. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and renovated in1984.
Last month, Tibetans were ordered to withdraw their family members enrolled in monasteries and nunneries in Jomda County in Chamdo prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibetans were also threatened of discontinuation of their government aid among other punishments if they fail to withdraw their family members from monasteries and nunneries.
