DHARAMSHALA, February 26: Chinese authorities in Qinghai Province are preventing monks below 19 years who are on visit to their homes for the Tibetan New Year vacations from returning to their monasteries, the Radio Free Asia reported.
A Tibetan source told RFA that the Chinese authorities told parents at a meeting that they must not send their children back to their monasteries and instead disrobe them and sent to schools in their area.
The authorities carefully chose the time after Tibetan New Year which started on 19 February for this clampdown on Tibetan monks and the general freedom of religion for Tibetans.
“On Feb. 23, four days after the first day of the new year, government officials held meetings with parents in Tulan and Terlenkha counties and told them that young monks now studying in distant monasteries will not be allowed to return there,” RFA quoted a source as saying on condition of anonymity.
“Instead, they must attend local schools as lay students when the holidays end,” he said.
Tibetan language classes organized for students who have already graduated from local schools have now also been banned, he added.
“Parents have regularly complained that Tibetan language is not being taught in the schools,” the RFA quoted source, who requested anonymity.
“To compensate for this, an educated local Tibetan had organized special classes to teach the language, but these have now been shut down,” he said.
