Just the latest mania from Tibet.
Got over a nasty bout of food poisoning which unfortunately wrecked my
only day off - slept all day and all night and took in nothing but
water, a couple cliff bars and a few emergen-c packets I bummed offf of
someone. Back to meetings. Have a session with the big guy tomorrow,
then outa here soon. Will be nice to be back home....
.d
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kates@ictibet.org <kates@ictibet.org>
Date: Apr 29, 2008 3:43 PM
Subject: [TSG-L] Detentions of monks as enforced condemnation of HHDL provokes dissent
To: TSG-L@lists.mcgill.ca
Mass detentions of monks, suicides and despair as enforced condemnation of Dalai Lama provokes dissent
Closure of monastery school as 'reprisal'; more protests in eastern Tibet and near Lhasa
ICT report, April 29, 2008
Mass detentions of monks have continued in the past week and more
monasteries have been sealed off by armed troops as a rigorous
patriotic education campaign across the Tibetan plateau leads to
increasing unrest. As the crackdown deepens, reports have reached ICT
of the suicide of monks in different areas in protest at hardline
policies or in despair due to the climate of fear and uncertainty. New
images published on ICT's website show pictures of the Dalai Lama and
important religious teachers that have been defaced by troops or
officials, and further reports have emerged of officials or police
trampling on photographs of the Tibetan religious leader.
Further news has emerged of recent protests in areas including
Meldrogungkar (Chinese: Mozhu Gongka) in Lhasa Municipality on April
12, where monks from Pangsa monastery were joined by other monks and
nuns and laypeople in calling for an end to detentions and killings,
and in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) county in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture (TAP) in Sichuan, where two nuns in their early thirties
held a protest at the county market on April 23, scattering small
pieces of paper with messages including "Long live the Dalai Lama".
Reports of a protest on April 21 at a monastery in Kham, in Serthar
(Chinese: Seda) county, Kardze TAP, involving monks and laypeople and
suppressed by armed police, could not immediately be confirmed. At the
Larung Gar religious institute in the same county, there are serious
concerns of possible unrest as officials are attempting to enforce the
raising of the Chinese flag, according to two Tibetan sources.
New images have been received by ICT of images of the Dalai Lama and
important religious teachers that have been torn or shrines that have
been smashed at Kirti monastery, Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) TAP in Sichuan
province (published online at: http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1302).
Kirti Monastery was at the center of the wave of protests in eastern
Tibet when monks were joined by laypeople and schoolchildren in a major
protest on March 16, calling for a free Tibet, with pictures of the
Dalai Lama and Tibetan flags on display. Reprisals continue at Kirti as
the Chinese authorities recently closed the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti
Monastic School, affiliated with the monastery, according to reliable
Tibetan sources.
A Tibetan from Lhasa who is now in exile and who requested not to be
named told ICT: "The level of unrest and continued dissent shows that
these hardline policies by China in Tibet have achieved the opposite of
what they were aiming for - they have united Tibetans across the
plateau in their loyalty to the Dalai Lama and in preserving the
integrity of their cultural identity. This has not happened before in
two centuries of Tibetan history. The question now is how the Tibetans
will take this forward and how it will play out politically."
Enforced condemnation of 'Dalai clique' leads to despair, suicides, detentions
A round of "Cultural Revolution-like political campaigns" are being
carried out all over Tibet, according to reports from different areas
across the plateau. Work teams have been dispatched to monasteries and
nunneries, and within the lay community, meetings convened to condemn
the "Dalai clique".
Reports have been received from various monasteries of distress due to
pictures of the Dalai Lama being trampled by armed police or work
teams, for instance at Shi-Tsang Gatsel monastery in Luchu (Chinese:
Luqu) county, Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) TAP in Gansu province. According
to the Tibetan government in exile, armed police raided the monastery
and detained around 28 monks. The monastery was raided again in the
early hours of the following morning and another four monks were taken
into custody. The Tibetan government in exile reported that armed
forces also trampled on images of the Dalai Lama at Choephel Tashi
Chokor-Ling monastery in Dukhor town, Chone (Chinese: Zhuoni) county in
Kanlho TAP, and where a number of monks had been detained.
A renewed 'patriotic education' campaign was formally begun in Lhasa
last week, to last two months, with the theme of 'Opposing Separatism,
Safeguarding Stability and Promoting Development', according to the
official newspaper Tibet Daily. The campaign appears to be aimed
specifically at the lay community, as rigorous patriotic education is
already ongoing in the main Lhasa monasteries. Tibetans are being
required by the campaign to denounce the Dalai Lama, with the aim of
"deepening the anti-separatist struggle and counter-attacking the Dalai
clique's scheme to split [the country]" (Tibet Daily, April 21). The
report in Tibet Daily stated that "performance" in the campaign will be
used as a means of "assessing the achievements of Party members and
cadres". There is evidence that since the protests began on March 10,
there has been intensified distrust of Tibetan Party members and cadres.
A Tibetan source in Lhasa told a contact: "At the schools and in the
offices people have to write stories about the 14th of March and they
have to speak ill of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When they write about
the Dalai Lama they are only allowed to write Dalai, otherwise they
have to write it again. My child already had to write such stories
several times."
The patriotic education campaign has been extended beyond Lhasa to
various counties in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). On April 18,
Tibet Daily reported that Sangri County in Lhokha (Chinese: Shannan)
Prefecture will carry out a two month long patriotic education campaign
among Party members, cadres, retired people, schoolchildren, farmers,
herders, and even including the armed police and military stationed in
the county. A Tibetan writer and commentator said on a Chinese language
blog: "We can say that nobody can escape the campaign. Judging from
this, it seems that every township, every county and every prefecture
will carry out the political campaign of the same scale, and this will
be another 'Cultural Revolution' sweeping across the Tibetan areas and
touching on the soul of Tibetans."
A source close to Tibetans in Lhasa told ICT that many monks and nuns
have been taken away from monasteries and nunneries in and around
Lhasa. The source added that monks and nuns were being taken into
custody whether or not they had demonstrated on March 10 or beyond.
At least six monks in Nechung monastery, Lhasa, were detained after
apparently expressing their dissent to the patriotic education
campaign, according to the Tibetan government in exile. On April 19, a
monk reportedly stood up during a patriotic education class and said
that the monks did not need these classes, nor did they want to
participate, and others joined in (April 23, Tibetan government in
exile report, www.tibet.net)
According to one further source, there may only be a handful of monks
still left at Nechung, a small monastery near Drepung in Lhasa which
normally houses around 16 monks.
The same Tibetan source, writing in Chinese on a website, said: "When
Tibetans talk about the harsh suppression of the various monasteries,
they are all very indignant, but are very scared as well. Since all the
monasteries have been forced to close, many Tibetans have to offer
butter lamps in front of the carved statues of Buddha on the rocks of
Chakpori Mountain [a hill near the Potala Palace with famous engravings
of the Buddha], to pray for monks and lay people who were suppressed by
the authorities."
Eight young monks from Nalanda monastery in Lhundrub (Chinese: Linzhou)
county in Lhasa Municipality were detained on April 17, according to
two reports. A young Tibetan man from Chukha Jang village, Nyima
Tenzin, was beaten so severely that he sustained a broken spine, and he
was fined 5000 yuan ($713). (April 22, Tibetan government in exile).
In Drango county (Chinese: Luhuo) in Kardze TAP, various sources report
a 'signature campaign' requiring local people to vilify the Dalai Lama.
After he refused to sign, a young farmer from Gephen Li-Khokma village
in the county was so severely beaten he had to be hospitalized and his
current condition is unknown (Tibetan government in exile report, April
25).
In many areas, Chinese authorities are attempting to enforce the
raising of the Chinese flag. At Larung Gar religious institute in
Serthar county, Kardze TAP, one of the most important centers for the
study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism on the plateau, officials are
putting pressure on Tibetan lamas to raise the Chinese flag and
participate in political meetings. According to reports received by
ICT, the situation at the institute is tense, and local people fear
possible consequences of the authorities' actions.
In Baiyu (Chinese: Payul) county also in Kardze TAP, armed police have
told local people that they must fly Chinese flags over the monastery
and individual houses. ICT could not confirm whether local people have
followed this requirement. According to one report, local officials
have told people that if they did not sign their names on a petition
condemning the Dalai Lama, they would not allow them to harvest yartsa
gunba (caterpillar fungus), an essential source of income for many
Tibetans.
Tibetans in Meldrogungkar call for end to detentions and killings: suicides in response to crackdown
A nun in her thirties from Cholung nunnery was so traumatized by the
beatings she had witnessed by armed police after a demonstration in
Tashigang township, Meldrogungkar in Lhasa Municipality on April 12
that she killed herself, according to reliable reports from Tibetan
sources. According to the sources, Tibetan monks from Pangsa monastery
were joined by other monks and nuns and local people in a protest,
shouting slogans calling for an end to arbitrary detention and the
killing of Tibetan protestors, and the release of all political
prisoners. They also shouted slogans rejecting official demands that
they denounce the Dalai Lama. Armed police broke up the demonstration,
apparently using brutal force to beat Tibetans with rifle butts and to
break limbs, according to a source. Around 60 Tibetans were detained.
According to more recent reports, all of the monasteries in the
Meldrogungkar valley area are sealed off by police.
Two nuns who made a bold protest in Kardze TAP in Sichuan have been
identified by Radio Free Asia's Tibetan Service as Bumo Lhaga, 32, and
Sonam Dekyi, 30, from the Drakar nunnery in Kardze (RFA, April 27,
2008, http://www.rfa.org/english/news/nuns_detained-04282008095605.html).
RFA reported a source as saying that on April 23, at around 1 pm, the
nuns began distributing handwritten flyers calling for the Dalai Lama
to return to Tibet and saying that Tibet is independent. Security
police began to gather the flyers. The source said: "Later, the nuns
were observed on a street-corner shouting slogans calling for the
return of the Dalai Lama and for freedom for Tibetans. They were
quickly detained and taken away in a police vehicle but even while they
were being taken away, they continued to shout." RFA quoted the mother
of one of the nuns, Sonam Dekyi, as saying: "My daughter, Sonam Dekyi,
fulfilled her purpose in life. She made her own decision to protest,
knowing fully the risk and danger that she would face. I am not worried
at all. If she doesn't survive Chinese torture, I have no regrets... As
His Holiness wished, she protested peacefully and didn't resort to any
kind of violence."
A blind or partially sighted Kirti monk called Tusong, from a village
nearby in Ngaba county, Sichuan, committed suicide at the age of 29 on
April 16. According to one report, he told his family that just as
those with eyes cannot endure what is happening: "even I, a blind
person, cannot endure it."
Officials in the same county, Ngaba, are now required to lead
denunciations of the Dalai Lama, and according to one report, these
activities will be filmed for propaganda purposes. According to the
Tibetan government in exile, many monks and laypeople arrested in the
Ngaba area have been taken to detention centers or prisons in Chengdu.
Reprisals at Kirti: closure of school
Reprisals continue at Kirti, where many monks have apparently fled from
the monastery, following the March 16 protest. The local government
closed the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastic School, affiliated with Kirti
monastery in Dzoege (Chinese: Zoige) county in Ngaba TAP in response to
students taking part in the protest. Teachers have been left to look
for positions in other villages, while students were sent home,
according to one source. Some of the children were beaten, according to
one report. On March 24 China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported
that most schools in Ngaba county had resumed classes and "life
returned to normal after riots earlier this month." The
Dharamsala-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported
that the school was closed on April 8, 2008 (TCHRD, April 17, 2008).
Currently home to approximately 500 students, the school was founded by
Dzoge Akhu Nymia in 1986 to teach young monks and children from the
surrounding area in the Tibetan language. In 1993, the school was put
under the care of Kirti monastery, where the abbot, Alag Lungsang
Nangwa Rinpoche, oversaw the completion of the school in 1996. The
local government took over official management of the school in 1998,
however TCHRD reported that day to day management remained with the
monastery until the school's closing on April 8 (TCHRD, April 17, 2008).
Kirti Monastery was at the center of the wave of protests in eastern
Tibet when monks were joined by laypeople and called for a free Tibet
on March 16, with pictures of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan flags on
display. Exiled Tibetans and other sources reported several hundred
arrests in and around Kirti monastery. At least eight Tibetans were
killed after police opened fire on the demonstrators, and images of
their bodies have been published online (www.freetibet.org
and other organizations). Xinhua issued conflicting statements on March
20, first confirming four protestors had been shot dead in Ngaba TAP in
Sichuan province, but then issuing a second release reporting that four
'rioters' had been wounded. Known among the dead are Lobsang Tashi, a
monk from Thawo village, and Tsezen, a layperson from Thachung village.
Laypeople attempt to protect monks during crackdown
In many areas of Tibet in recent weeks, laypeople from all walks of
life have joined monks to protest against Chinese policies and in
support of the Dalai Lama. On April 4, local Tibetan people gathered to
form "a human barricade" near their local monastery, Dring Sumdo
monastery in Dzoge county in Ngaba, the same county as Kirti monastery,
after armed troops arrived. The Tibetan villagers dispersed when they
found out that none of the monks had been detained that day (Tibetan
government in exile, April 23).
On the first day of the current wave of protests in Tibet, the most
significant uprising in five decades against Chinese rule, local
Tibetans in Lhasa formed "a strong, silent, peaceful circle around the
police" after a group of Sera monks shouted slogans outside the Jokhang
temple on March 10. Tourists, who posted their account on a blog, said
that "hundreds" of Tibetans had formed a circle around the police, but
that soon the police called for backup and the monks were all detained
(ICT report and images, http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1209).
New dissent and detentions in Rebgong
Rongwu monastery in Rebgong (Chinese: Tongren) county, Tsolho (Chinese:
Huangnan) TAP, Qinghai, is under lockdown and the whereabouts of monks
detained after a protest on April 17 is unclear, according to reports
from Tibetans with connections in the area. Armed police raided the
monastery and confiscated pictures of the Dalai Lama after monks staged
a protest, calling for the release of other monks detained following
earlier demonstrations and incidents of dissent in the area in February
and March. Monks were seen being taken away from the monastery with
their hands tied behind their backs and being loaded onto trucks. Two
days later, a number of the monks taken into custody were released
after being subject to severe beating in custody, according to sources.
The former head of Rongwu monastery, Alak (an honorific title, meaning
'lama') Khaso, a highly respected local figure, had attempted to
mediate between the monks and local authorities on April 17, but is
believed to have been injured following the police crackdown on the
protest. Sources have reported Alak Khaso was taken to hospital in
either Lanzhou, Gansu or Xining, Qinghai, but his current whereabouts
and condition are unconfirmed. One reliable Tibetan source said that
some Tibetan women and an elderly man rushed to try to help the lama
after they saw his head bleeding, but were also detained. The same
Tibetan source said: "Their hands were tied with wires. At that time
they arrested up to 100 people, who filled four military trucks."
Armed police raided Rongwu monastery, beating monks and taking them
into detention, and searching for images of the Dalai Lama. The latest
crackdown follows a protest on February 21 after authorities
interrupted the annual Monlam ceremony at a local monastery in Rebgong,
which was scheduled to end on February 22, and a further incident of
dissent by monks on March 17. Radio Free Asia reported approximately
200 protesters, mostly monks, were detained in February after
authorities used tear gas to disperse crowds gathered for the religious
celebration. It is believed that most of the detained have been
released, but many were reported to have suffered injuries. (See http://www.rfa.org/english/tibet/tibet_clash-20080222.html).
According to one source, protesters demonstrated at the county seat the
next day, demanding that the local government release the monks and lay
people who had been taken into custody. The demonstrators were later
released; however, three monks and an elderly man suffered injuries
after being severely beaten.
There has been a heavy police presence in Rebgong since the February
protests. Police forces were reportedly transferred from nearby areas,
including Xining, to Rebgong, with one local hotel hanging a banner
that read 'Welcome Special Police from Zhengzhou staying at our hotel',
according to one source.
Despite this repressive atmosphere, a month before the latest protest,
on March 17, monks from Rongwu burned incense and shouted slogans of
support for the Dalai Lama and Tibetan freedom. They also called for
the authorities to let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet, and to "hand
back the Panchen Lama and his parents to the Tibetan people." Gendun
Choekyi Nyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama,
has been in Chinese custody in an unknown location since 1995. The
monks were prevented by armed police from taking the protest further.
(ICT report, http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1234).
This report can be found online at http://savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1302
Press contact:
Kate Saunders
Communications Director, ICT
Tel: +44 7947 138612
email: press@savetibet.org
