By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Feb. 2: The deadline for the surrender of any Dalai Lama photos for shopkeepers in Draggo County in Sichuan Province has ended as of today (Feb.2), according to Chinese government order issued earlier last month.
The order dated Jan. 4 prescribes against the risk of prosecution, the mandatory surrender of any Dalai Lama photos on sale and stock to authorities. Shop-keepers, who fail to comply by the set date to hand over all stocks of Dalai Lama photographs, cease sale and even display photos in shops risk to face punishment.
A copy of the government order from last month obtained by RFA services through an anonymous source said, “If any shop or store possessed photos of the Dalai Lama and displayed these before the date of this notice, these should be voluntarily surrendered to the Draggo County Office of Culture and Discipline by Feb. 2. Those who delay in handing these over, or who never turn them in, will be punished severely”.
The same source also cite that prior to the government order, almost 40 % of the County’s stores sold Dalai Lama photos.
The ban on the photograph of the Dalai Lama is put into action sporadically and unevenly across the Tibetan areas. In April 2013, rights group International Campaign for Tibet announced that the 17 year old ban on Gaden Monastery, a prominent Buddhist monastery in Lhasa to portray the Dalai Lama’s photo had been lifted.
The Dalai Lama whom China labels a “separatist” has maintained since a few decades, that he is seeking only “genuine autonomy” under China, also the official position of the exile Tibetan government.
In a rare display of defiance, thousands of people in Tehor recently gathered before a huge portrait of the Dalai Lama to pray for the Tibetan leader after his departure for the United States for medical treatment.
