Tibet | Chinese
Communist officials to run Buddhism center
August 28, 2017 Macau
Daily Times
China has appointed Communist Party and
government officials to manage one of the world’s largest centers
of Tibetan Buddhist learning, raising concerns over strengthened
ideological control over religion that critics say is draining such
institutions of their vitality.
The appointments at Larung Gar are the latest
sign of Beijing’s distrust of members of the Tibetan Buddhist
clergy who embody the region’s traditional culture and
beliefs.
Those appointed to top positions by the
personnel department of the Communist Party in Garze Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture include the prefecture’s former deputy police
chief, the website of the party mouthpiece People’s Daily reported.
All apparently ethnic Tibetans, they will serve as the head and
deputy head of the Larung Gar’s party committee.
“The appointments will help the school operate
in accordance with laws and will not affect its teaching, since the
officials will be administrators,” Penpa Lhamo, deputy head of the
contemporary studies institute of the Tibet Academy of Social
Sciences was quoted as saying by the Global Times last
week.
Despite that, the presence of party officials
in temples, monasteries and nunneries brings new demands,
especially that monks and nuns attend “patriotic education” classes
that seek to instill patriotism but take precious time away from
religious study.
Founded in 1980 by prominent monk Jigme
Puntsok, Larung Gar has attracted increasing official attention in
recent years, with the authorities currently carrying out a drive
to cut the number of residents living there by half to 5,000,
largely through housing demolitions and evictions. Authorities say
they are merely clearing routes for firefighting
equipment.
Overseas Tibetan groups say such campaigns
show how authorities want to contain the spread of Tibetan
Buddhism, which has grown popular among Chinese beyond traditional
Tibetan areas such as Garze, which sits in the western mountains of
Sichuan province.
Several United Nations special rapporteurs
wrote to the Chinese government in November to express concern
about “serious repression” of Buddhist Tibetan cultural and
religious practices in the region. AP