New surveillance and control measures are threatening to turn the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community into a tool of the Chinese Communist Party, states a new report Party Above Buddhism: China’s Surveillance and Control of Tibetan Monasteries and Nunneries by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)*, released on Tibetan Uprising Day, March 10.
The report documents policy and institutional changes that force monks and nuns to serve the interests of the Communist Party at the expense of their religious beliefs. Changes include giving a Communist Party agency direct oversight of monasteries and nunneries, stationing police and party cadres inside religious institutions and pressuring monks and nuns to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the sake of China’s national unity.
Monks and nuns are the most targeted group for repression by the ruling Communist Party in Tibet, which views Tibetan Buddhism as a threat to its rule. Protests and nonviolent resistance to Chinese rule are seen as being instigated in monasteries which are bedrocks of Tibetan Buddhist religion and culture.
One example cited by the report is that of the United Front Work Department, the agency that now has direct oversight over all religions, whose budget in the Tibet Autonomous Region is reported as being tripled last year.
The report mentions China’s “re-education” programmes for monks and nuns which pressure them to follow the party line. A “Four Standards” policy essentially requires monks and nuns to serve as propagandists for the government; monks and nuns are routinely forced to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama and China is claiming authority to appoint his – and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders’ – reincarnation.
Other examples in the report include the restrictions which prevent monks from travelling freely between religious institutions in search of teachers and knowledge and the prevention of children from attending religious schools.
The report quotes a scholar in Tibet: “There has been a major decline in the number of monks and nuns, with some monasteries and nunneries virtually empty.” Monks are expelled for non compliance and often leave voluntarily because of the restrictions imposed.
The International Campaign for Tibet comments, “After more than 60 years of China’s brutal, authoritarian rule in Tibet, our new report shows that Tibetan Buddhism is facing some of the gravest threats yet to its survival. We hope that ‘Party Above Buddhism’ shines a light on China’s new efforts to bend this beautiful faith to the twisted purposes of the Chinese Communist Party. We also urge the international community once again to speak up for the religious freedom of the Tibetan people.”
*The ICT, the largest Tibet support group in the world, works to help Tibetans in their peaceful struggle for democracy and human rights and seeks to preserve Tibet’s ancient culture of wisdom.
Print
Email