Han Chinese, Western
Students of Buddhism Also Forced From Larung Gar
2016-12-29 Radio Free
Asia
Hundreds of Han Chinese and
Western students living at Sichuan’s Larung Gar Buddhist Academy
have been quietly ordered to leave as Chinese authorities continue
the forced, and better publicized, removal of larger numbers of
Tibetan monks and nuns, sources say.
Several hundred Han Chinese, many of them living
at Larung Gar as lay practitioners but some also monastically
ordained, have already been evicted from the center, a local source
told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Many of them had lived in Larung Gar for many
years, while others joined later in order to study and practice,”
RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They came from different parts of China,” the
source said.
“There were also many students from Western
countries, including the United States and countries in Europe, who
were studying at the center, and they too were forced to leave
without any publicity,” he said.
Tibetan monks and nuns have so far made up the
largest number of Larung Gar residents forced to leave, though,
RFA’s source said.
“The brunt of the hardship was faced by the
monks and nuns who were sent back to their home counties in the
Tibet Autonomous Region,” the source said.
“They were not allowed to go straight back to
their family homes but first had to undergo a month of patriotic
reeducation programs, after which they were allowed to
return.”
More nuns expelled
Following the eviction last week of hundreds of
monks and nuns who had come to Larung Gar from counties in Golog
(in Chinese, Guoluo) in neighboring Qinghai, another large group of
nuns was sent away by bus on Dec. 28, the source said.
“At that time, many other nuns who had gathered
at the station cried out in pain and distress at the departure of
their friends.”
Chinese work crews are still carrying out the
destruction of monks’ and nuns’ houses at Larung Gar, he
said.
Many thousands of Tibetans and Han Chinese once
studied at Serthar (Seda) county’s sprawling Larung Gar complex,
which was founded in 1980 by the late religious teacher Khenpo
Jigme Phuntsok and is one of the world’s largest and most important
centers for the study of Tibetan Buddhism.
Many have already been expelled from the
makeshift dwellings that once lined the hillsides around Larung Gar
as authorities seek to reduce the center’s population by about half
to a maximum level of 5,000 by next year, sources told RFA in
earlier reports.