By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA November 15: In an attempt to prevent Tibetans with Chinese Passports to attend next year’s Kalachakra initiation, the Chinese officials have started confiscating passports, according to RFA.
The officials have also directed the Tibetans already outside Tibet to return. Moreover, authorities in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu are collecting all passports under the pretext of ‘affixing new seal’, says a source.
“They say the passports will be returned once the newly required seals of township and village authorities are in place,” the source added.
According to another source, many suspect this as an attempt to prevent Tibetans from travelling to India to attend the Kalachakra in Bodh Gaya.
Notices have been sent to families of those outside the country to report back or face severe consequences.
According to a third source, a group of Tibetans travelling in Nepal and India for pilgrimage and to attend the Kalachakra initiation were called back.
“Their relatives called and told them to return immediately, telling them that Chinese officials had come to their homes to order their return,” the source said, adding the officials have warned that the government officials who had vouched for the passport holders could lose their jobs.
However, those who hold passport with visas for business travel are exempted from the confiscation drive.
The 34th Kalachakra organized by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) is scheduled from January 3-13 next year at Bod Gaya after the cancellation of the initial scheduled Kalachakra initiation last year. The holy town has so far hosted the initiation four times – 1974, 1985, 2003 and 2012.
The Kalachakra initiations are considered the epitome of all Buddhist teachings by Buddhists the world over and are attended by devotees from around the world as well as Tibetans from inside Tibet.
The Tibetan spiritual leader has given 33 Kalachakra initiations so far since 1954, the year he gave it the first time at Norbulingka, Tibet. The last one was held in Ladakh in 2014.
