Contact is taking a holiday!

Shadows of Dust across the Sun, a new report from the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), details how expulsions and demolitions at Larung Gar and Yachen Gar in recent months are part of a cynical Chinese government ploy to curb and manage the growing influence of monks and nuns in Tibet. The report also shows how, in a delicate balancing act, the Chinese are simultaneously trying to exploit growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism to attract domestic tourists.

Larung Gar is the largest Buddhist institute in the world and one of the most influential centres of learning in the Tibetan world. Officials have been demolishing the homes of some of the 20,000 monks and nuns living around the institute. Evictions are also occurring around Yachen Gar which is home to 10,000 nuns. According to the ICT report the demolition work underway at the sites is “part of a push to develop the area with new guest-houses or facilities for temporary visitors rather than long staying monastics.”

The ICT report, informed by first-hand sources and eye witness testimony, shows that the plans for urbanisation and tourism at the sites will present an official version of Tibetan religious culture and a “happy Kardze”, involving an emphasis on non-religious elements of Tibetan culture. It is estimated that following the reconstruction of Larung Gar only 5,000 monks and nuns will remain. They will no longer engage in serious scholarship and study, but “be reduced to a superficial attraction for temporary visitors and spiritual seekers”.

As for those being evicted, a harsher reality awaits. Videos have circulated of heavy vehicles dismantling wooden homes with the sound of chanting in the background. Some footage captured nuns with hands in prayer position, weeping, or sinking to the ground in despair as their friends leave in convoys of coaches. Monks and nuns who have been expelled have been forced to undergo “patriotic reeducation” in their home areas. This involves singing songs dedicated to Chairman Mao and performing a modern dance routine to a famous pop song, The Song of the Emancipated Serfs, which is associated with official Communist Party celebrations.