MB Civic

Tibetan monks have angered China by
taking opportunities to protest to the
media. The authorities have cracked down
at least until the Olympics.

Jane Macartney in Beijing
The Times (UK)
July 7, 2008

Chinese authorities tightened security
around Tibet’s main monasteries and
banned visits to a sacred site on the edge
of the capital, Lhasa, for fear of a fresh
outburst of unrest on the Dalai Lama’s birthday.

Few monks remain, however, in the
province’s three most important
monasteries. Many have disappeared, their
whereabouts a mystery. Chinese officials
have deployed troops and paramilitary
police around the ancient religious
institutions, suspecting these sprawling
hillside communities are at the heart of the
unrest that has swept the region since
early March.

Dozens, possibly several hundred, have
been arrested or are detained and under
investigation for their roles in the anti-Chinese demonstrations and riots that hit
Lhasa on March 14. This, however, does not
account for the empty halls in the three
great monasteries, Drepung, Sera and
Ganden, that lie near the city. Several
hundred monks are believed to have been
living in each of them before the violence
erupted.

Now Tibetan sources have revealed that
most of the monks, more than 1,000 in
total, have been transferred to many
prisons and detention centres in and
around the city of Golmud in neighbouring
Qinghai province. The detained monks are
all young ethnic Tibetans from surrounding
regions who had made their way to Lhasa,
their spiritual capital, to study and pray in
the most prestigious spiritual centres on
the Roof of the World.

Their detention is part of a policy to rid the
monasteries of any monks not registered
as formal residents of the administrative
region, known as the Tibetan Autonomous
Region. Family members say that the
monks have been told they will be
incarcerated in Golmud only until the end
of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The policy
is part of a campaign by the Chinese
Government to ensure that the Games,
opening on August 8 and lasting for two
weeks, pass off without a hitch and without
protests from the restive Tibetans, they
told The Times.

“After that they have been told that they
will be allowed to leave, because they are
not guilty of a crime,” one man whose
brother is among the detained said. “But
they will be ordered to return to their
home villages and will not be permitted to
go back to the monasteries in Lhasa.”
There were no reports that any of those
being held were being mistreated, he
added.

The monks’ detention is, in effect, a
decision by China to implement a policy
first promulgated in 1994 to limit the size
of Tibet’s monasteries, because increasing
religious freedoms were attracting
growing numbers.

Sera monastery, for example, is supposed
to house no more than 400 monks but is
believed to have grown to more than 1,000.
In Drepung – at its height the largest
monastery in the world – has been
allocated a similar quota but has allowed
as many as 900 monks to live in its high-walled compounds. The monasteries have
for years allowed young boys well below
the age of 18 to enter in direct
contravention of the rules but the
authorities had turned a blind eye.

The abbots have encouraged the unofficial
monks because they found that those from
other regions tended to be the most
devoted and diligent, Tibetan sources said.

Registered monks are given a monthly
stipend that can sometimes be as much as
5,000 yuan (£350) depending on the
donations to a monastery and entrance
ticket sales. Many prefer to spend their
days playing video games and DVDs rather
than reading the scriptures, they said. They
voiced concern that the monasteries could
lose many of their best Buddhist scholars if
the monks were not allowed to return
after the Olympics.

Authorities have ordered all Tibetans
without a Lhasa residence permit to leave
the city and to return to their homes.
Reports are increasing of the authorities
targeting individuals whose dress, haircut
or even teeth – Tibetans from Sichuan and
Qinghai favour gold fillings – mark them
out as coming from neighbouring regions.

Tibetan residents of Lhasa say that they
prefer not to wear Tibetan dress for fear
they will be stopped and questioned on the
street by police or soldiers. Men say that
they are growing their hair so as not to be
mistaken for a monk and interrogated.

One man, from the Khamba group that
lives in western Sichuan province and is
renowned for its warriors, told how he was
arrested after the March 14 riot because
his long hair identified him as being from
that region.

The huge security operation has, however,
failed to halt protests by Tibetans
demanding the return of the Dalai Lama
and independence for their homeland. On
June 18 six took place in Ganze county
alone.

One Tibetan source said: “They know they
are going to be arrested but people still go
out and demonstrate. And then you can
see the cats come out and catch them like
mice.”

Ancient traditions

Drepung monastery

The largest of Tibetan monasteries, whose
name means “rice heap.” Its population
numbered as many as 7,700 in the 1930s
and sometimes up to 10,000. Founded in
1416, it has long been been regarded as
the most academic monastery of the
Gelukpa — or Yellow Hat — sect

Sera monastery

Its name means “Enclosure of Roses.” Also
founded in the early 15th century. Began as
a scholarly institution but became known
as the home of warrior monks whose
responsibility was to defend Tibet and its
Buddhist traditions

Ganden monastery

The oldest of the three great monasteries,
its name means “continent of completely
victorious happiness.” It is 35 miles from
Lhasa and has long been the smallest
house. It suffered most during the 1966-76
Cultural Revolution, when it was dynamited
by the Army and Red Guards