Chinese passports shown in a file photo
Chinese officials are confiscating passports in Tibet. Tibetans holding Chinese passports are having to relinquish them, and others who are already abroad are being ordered to return home before the 2017 Kalachakra initiation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which is due to take place in Bodh Gaya in north India in January next year.
This is seen as an attempt to prevent Tibetans living in Tibet from attending one of the biggest and holiest Buddhist teachings by their spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Kalachakra, or “Wheel of Time” is considered the essence of all Buddhist teachings and thousands are expected to attend from all over India and the rest of the world.It can also provide the opportunity for Tibetans living in Tibet to reunite with family members who have spent years living in exile.
Chinese government officials are visiting the Tibet populated provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan to confiscate people’s passports and travel documents, saying that there is a requirement for new seals to be affixed. Radio Free Asia has reported a source from the region as saying, “They say the passports will be returned once the newly required seals of township and village authorities are in place”. Passport holders with business visas are exempt from the confiscation.
According to a Phayul news source, a group of Tibetans who have already reached Nepal and India for pilgrimage and to attend the Kalachakra in January 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”, said the source.
Photo: imagekhabar
In a different case reported by My Republica, a national daily in Nepal, a group of 41 Tibetans travelling to India from Nepal in a private bus were arrested in Dhangadhi town near the Indian border for not having the correct papers. Their driver, who is also a Tibetan, said they were on pilgrimage to visit various Buddhist shrines in India, including Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. They were sent back to Nepal’s immigration department for “further investigation and necessary legal actions”, the Superintendent of Police Rajendra Bista said, speaking to My Republica.
Looking at the photo of this group of people published in the Nepalese media, they appear to have come from Tibet and many fear that the Nepali government may hand them over to the Chinese police. In recent years, as China’s influence over Nepal increases, Nepal’s policies on Tibetans have changed to comply with Chinese requirements and this presents problems for Tibetans travelling through Nepal on their way to India as well as for Tibetans living in Nepal. A recent example of a Nepali pro-Beijing stance was Nepalese police disrupting Tibetans celebrations for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday this year in July in Kathmandu, and public gatherings are now restricted.
Since 1954, His Holiness has given 33 Kalachakra initiations, the first one was held in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and the last one in Ladakh in north India in 2014. His Holiness will confer the 34th Kalachakra initiation in Bodh Gaya from January 3 – 14, 2017.
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