China bans annual religious event in Barkham County

Monday, December 28, 2009

Phayul
By Kalsang Rinchen
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a page from the ban order

Dharamsala, December 28 - China has put a ban on an annual religious congregation of Tibetan monks in Barkham County, and warned monks of arrest or closure of the host monastery if they went ahead with the event, according to a statement issued by the Emergency Coordination Committee of Kirti monastery here.

The third annual winter session on Valid Cognition, (Sanskrit: pramana Tib: Tsema) was to be held at Gyalrong Kirti Tsodhun monastery in the eleventh month of the Tibetan lunar calendar but authorities imposed a ban on the month long religious event that usually draws monks from over fifty monasteries in Amdo and Kham regions of Tibet.

The religious congregation was first held in 2007 at Tagtsang Lhamo Kirti monastery where it was decided that the four major monasteries of Kirti Tsang, Tagtsang Lhamo Kirti, Ngaba Kirti, Tsodhun Kirti and Hortsang Kirti would take turns to host the event. The event was last year held at Ngaba Kirti monastery but the Chinese government placed severe restrictions on it and cordoned off the monastery not allowing monks and devotees from other areas to join it.

Tsodhun monastery began preparations for the event early this year but on 2 December, the county authorities sent out an order banning the event saying it violated the ‘rules’ issued on August 16 concerning the operation of religious bodies in the county. The Tibetan monks suspect the “rule” had been formulated with the sole aim of banning the event at Tsodhun monastery, the statement said adding that an unnamed government official had even confirmed it. Security checkpoints had been built at various areas around the monastery and there is a strict monitoring of people and activities in the area, the statement further added.

Tsodhun monastery

On 16 December, around 20 officials including the deputy party secretary of Ngaba Tibet Autonomous prefecture called a meeting of the monks at Tsodhun monastery and said the religious congregation could not be held under the “law”. They also warned the monastic administration of closure of the monastery if it went ahead with the congregation. Monks of other participating monasteries were also warned of arrest and detention if they failed to comply with the order that consisted of 9 articles and 44 clauses.

Efforts by the monastic administration to clarify the matter and plead the authorities proved futile. The senior monks of the monastery told the visiting government officials that the event was purely religious and assured that no political activities would be carried out but their assurances failed to revert the authorities’ decision. The officials accused Kirti Tsang monasteries of initiating major protests in the area last year saying that the same event in 2007 was used by the monks to plan the protests against the government in 2008. They even accused the monks of coming under the influence of Kirti Rinpoche, a revered Buddhist lama based here in exile whom they accused of instigating the monks to protest against the government.