Tibet party boss
says temples must be propaganda centers
April 3,
2015
BEIJING - Buddhist temples and monasteries in Tibet
must become propaganda centers for the ruling Communist Party,
where monks and nuns learn to "revere" science and appreciate the
party's love, the troubled region's top Chinese appointed official
said.
Rights groups and exiles say the officially atheist party tramples
on Tibetans' religious and cultural traditions and seeks to co-opt
religious figures for its own ends.
China, which "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1950, says it
guarantees freedom of religion and its rule ended serfdom and
brought development to a backward, poverty-stricken
region.
Writing in the influential fortnightly party magazine Qiushi,
Tibet's Communist Party boss Chen Quanguo said the more than 1,700
temples and monasteries and 46,000 monks and nuns had to be seen by
the government as "friends".
"Let the monks and nuns in the temples and monasteries have a
personal feeling of the party and government's care and warmth; let
them feel the party's benevolence, listen to the party's words and
follow the party's path," Chen wrote in Qiushi, which means
"seeking truth".
He called for temples and monasteries in the region to be outfitted
with radios and televisions, as well as newspapers and reading
rooms.
"Monks and nuns should not have to go out of their temples or
monasteries to understand the party and government's policies and
social progress, or Tibet's peace, stability and good fortune, so
as to be guided to follow a path of revering scientific
culture."
Subscribers received the latest issue of the magazine on
Friday.
Chen has struck a similar line before, writing in late 2013 that
Chinese officials in Tibet must build an "impenetrable defense"
against separatism and befriend monks and nuns, who are generally
revered by the devoutly Buddhist Tibetans.
The government has tried, with varying degrees of success, to
prevent Tibetans from accessing information about exiled spiritual
leader the Dalai Lama and the exiled government on the Internet or
via satellite television.
But many Tibetans are still able to get such news, either via
illegal satellite television or by skirting Chinese Internet
restrictions.
Beijing calls the Nobel Peace Prize laureate a "wolf in sheep's
clothing" who seeks to use violent methods to establish an
independent Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed
uprising in 1959, says he simply wants genuine autonomy for Tibet,
and denies espousing violence. —
Reuters