By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, May 2: A London-based Tibetan human rights monitoring agency has published a report “Tibet’s ‘Intolerable’ Monasteries” which gives an insight into the role of the Tibetan monastic community in Tibet’s resistance under Chinese occupation.
Tibet Watch, an NGO that monitors, advocates and carries out research on human rights in Tibet, said that China adopted different approaches through the imposition of ‘work teams’, surveillance cameras within monastery grounds, dedicated police stations, frequent inspections and numerous arbitrary regulations.
The report explains how religion was systematically attacked during the Cultural Revolution where private religious practice became illegal. “Buddhism in Tibet is an integral part of the social fabric. Attacks and restrictions on Buddhism in Tibet are, therefore, not peripheral issues, they are attacks on the Tibetan people, culture and way of life,” the report stated.
It has also documented the biggest uprising since 1959, when 21 Drepung monks took the streets of Lhasa in Sept 1987, sparking a wave of protest throughout the late 1980s. These protests led to the incarceration of thousands of Tibetans as protests spread across the city. Martial law was declared in the Tibetan capital in 1989.
The situation further intensified with the arrest of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the six-year-old boy recognized by the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama in May 1995.
“Throughout 1996 monks belonging to monasteries in Shigatse opposed the intrusion of the Chinese government into religious affairs. Several arrests followed these demonstrations, while many monks were forced to leave their monasteries,” the advocacy agency stated.
Following Panchen Lama’s forced disappearance, new set of strict regulations were imposed on monasteries including limitation of the number of monks and nuns who could be enrolled at each institution.
Introduction of ‘patriotic re-education’ program, which forced the monks to denounce the Dalai Lama, led to fresh resentment towards Beijing.
“More recently, during the 2008 uprising, monks again led the protests and suffered the brunt of the subsequent crackdown. It is possible therefore to see a correlation between religious institutions and Tibetan political resistance,” it said, adding that monasteries are equally important to Tibet’s digital resistance given its strong contact network ensuring news from inside Tibet.
The report also mentions China’s latest intrusion in Tibetan religion by publishing an online database of official Rinpoches, where all reincarnated lamas approved by the central government are listed.
“According to the Chinese government, those who are not part of this list are not to be recognised as authentic. The Dalai Lama, head of Tibetan Buddhism’s largest school, is not to be found on this database,” the report retorts.
