{"id":1548,"date":"2016-07-28T11:50:30","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T06:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tibetnature.lhasocialwork.com\/en\/?p=1548"},"modified":"2016-07-28T11:50:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T06:20:30","slug":"abbot-urges-monks-protest-china-razes-buddhist-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/abbot-urges-monks-protest-china-razes-buddhist-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbot Urges Monks Against Protest as China Razes Buddhist Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese demolition crews, accompanied by police and government officials, have begun tearing down parts of what is considered the largest Buddhist study institute in the world.<\/p>\n

The demolition at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, in Serthar County, Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region, Sichuan province, began Wednesday at 8 a.m., a resident monk told Radio Free Asia\u2019s Tibetan service on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/a><\/p>\n

FILE – A view shows the settlements of Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in Serthar County of Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region, Sichuan province, China, July 23, 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The work started “with those structures that were not already recorded in the government\u2019s record of permitted dwellings,\u201d RFA\u2019s source said. “The work crews are all [Han] Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a previous official notice, which was circulated through Tibetan social media, over 5,000 houses were slated for destruction.<\/p>\n

The event took place shortly after abbot Tsultrim Lodue called on the Larung Gar community to restrain itself from opposing the planned razing of the sprawling facility.<\/p>\n

‘Think for the institute’<\/p>\n

He said it might make people feel that \u201ceverything is finished\u201d when so many houses are leveled, but that if people look back in a few years, they might find that it wasn’t the worst possible outcome. He urged people against circulating information about the demolition via social media and discouraged any protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t mind your house, but think for the institute,\u201d he said in an undated audio recording of his speech that was circulated via WeChat. In that speech, he said protesting the central government-mandated demolition would only exacerbate the situation.<\/p>\n

Photos of Chinese bulldozers razing the homes circulated via Tibetan social media, along with a slew of angry comments.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/a><\/p>\n

FILE – A Tibetan pilgrim prays near a Buddhist temple in Serthar County, Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region, Sichuan province, China, July 20, 2015. The academy was founded in the 1980s among the mountains of the remote prefecture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIf the only way to solve the overpopulation is destroying the houses, then why is the same policy not implemented in the Chinese cities and towns where the population is overcrowded?\u201d said one netizen, a self-described Larung Gar student, according to a report by Free Tibet.<\/p>\n

The London-based organization condemned the move, calling it part of Beijing’s efforts to \u201csubvert the influence of Buddhism in Tibet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are bringing violence to a place of peace and spirituality,\u201d said Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, the group’s director. \u201cThey are making around 5,000 monks and nuns homeless. China likes to talk about religious freedom, but their actions at Larung Gar cannot be justified. [These actions] show us how [Chinese officials] really feel about Tibetan Buddhism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faster pace?<\/p>\n

Larung Gar is home to at least 10,000 monks, nuns, lay students and elderly people, although some tourism websites put estimates closer to 40,000 people. Human Rights Watch in June reported on Beijing\u2019s plan to reduce the population to 5,000 by September 2017. Wednesday’s demolition indicated the timeline has been accelerated. Chinese President Xi Jinping has even taken a personal interest in the reduction campaign, sources told RFA in earlier reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf authorities somehow believe that the Larung Gar facilities are overcrowded, the answer is simple: Allow Tibetans and other Buddhists to build more monasteries,\u201d said Sophie Richardson, HRW’s China director. The New York-based rights organization has called on Chinese officials to leave the Buddhist institute alone, saying religious freedom entails respecting individual choices.<\/p>\n

Since 2008, the number of monks in monasteries across the Tibetan Autonomous Region was drastically reduced, leaving most monasteries with only a handful of monks and Chinese Communist Party members in charge of the facilities. Many monks in the region subsequently decamped to Larung Gar in order to continue their studies. In 2014, however, TAR-based Chinese officials ordered families in Driru County to bring monks back from Larung Gar and other monasteries in Ganze prefecture.<\/p>\n

Larung Gar was established in 1980 by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, a highly regarded Tibetan Buddhist master. It houses both Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist students and practitioners.<\/p>\n

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Tibetan and Mandarin services. Portions of this report are from RFA.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0www.voatibetanenglish.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese demolition crews, accompanied by police and government officials, have begun tearing down parts of what is considered the largest Buddhist study institute in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}