[Authorities from the Tibetan government-in-exile say the Chinese government barred an estimated 7,000 Tibetan pilgrims from attending this month’s 10-day gathering in India, an unprecedented move that further erodes the rights of 6 million people who live in the Tibetan region of China. It was also a fresh reminder that the Chinese are threatening to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama after the eventual demise of the renowned religious leader, who is now 81.]
By Annie Gowen
 |
|
Tibetan spiritual leader
the Dalai Lama is assisted by his aides as he prepares to
perform rituals during
the inauguration of a Mongolian Buddhist temple in
Bodh Gaya, India, Jan. 9,
2017. (AP Photo/Manish Bhandari)
|
The young Tibetan monk was taking his elderly
aunt and uncle on the trip of a lifetime — a tour of holy Buddhist sites in
India and a chance to meet the Dalai Lama. But halfway through, word came from
China: The family was to return right away.
Chinese police had descended on the monk’s
home five times in December, fingerprinting his parents and forcing them to sign
documents guaranteeing his return.
But the monk and his family were determined
to see the Dalai Lama speak at Bodh Gaya, the Indian city that many consider
the birthplace of Buddhism. So they defied Chinese authorities and continued
their journey, risking imprisonment, harsh questioning or loss of identity
cards on their return home.
“I’m very worried,” the monk said on a chilly
evening, sitting in a tent not far from a teaching ground where thousands have
gathered daily since Jan. 3 to pray, meditate and hear their religious leader.
“If we are put in prison, they will interrogate us: ‘Why did you go to India?’
This can be very dangerous.”
Authorities from the Tibetan
government-in-exile say the Chinese government barred an estimated 7,000
Tibetan pilgrims from attending this month’s 10-day gathering in India, an
unprecedented move that further erodes the rights of 6 million people who live
in the Tibetan region of China. It was also a fresh reminder that the Chinese are
threatening to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama after the eventual
demise of the renowned religious leader, who is now 81.
“It’s tragic,” said Lobsang Sangay, the head
of Tibet’s government-in-exile, which is based in India. “It’s a
once-in-a-lifetime trip for Tibetans, like Muslims going to Mecca. It’s a sad
commentary on the Chinese claim to have religious freedom — or any kind of
freedom in Tibet.”
The Dalai Lama told reporters that the move
was “unfortunate.”
China has denied threatening pilgrims or
blocking their departures, but local authorities in Tibet declared this ritual
gathering, called the Kalachakra, illegal in 2012, the last time it was held in
Bodh Gaya. Most of the 7,000 already had traveled legally to India and were
forced to return early. Only 300 have remained.
“The government by no means threatened them
to return, although the government does not encourage them to attend the
ritual,” Xu Zhitao, an official with the Central Committee of China’s Communist
Party, told the Global Times, a tabloid associated with the party.
Since unrest broke out across the Tibetan
plateau in 2008, the Chinese government has enacted sweeping measures that have
curtailed freedom of expression, notably by prioritizing Chinese over the
Tibetan language in schools, posting police in monasteries and increasing
surveillance.
Activists say the Communist Party seeks to
break the connection between Tibetans and their revered leader to ensure
compliance with ambitious party objectives in Tibet, a region rich in mineral
and water resources.
“What we’re seeing is new,” said Kate Saunders
of the International Campaign for Tibet. “It’s a systematic attempt to prevent
Tibetans from having any access at all to the Dalai Lama.”
An estimated 10,000 Tibetans attended the
2012 Kalachakra in Bodh Gaya, but many were jailed or detained for
“re-education” in military camps when they returned, Saunders said.
About 200,000 maroon- and saffron-robed monks
and nuns as well as Buddhist devotees from around the world — including
American actor Richard Gere — converged on the town in eastern India for days
of chanting and lessons on Buddhist thought. As darkness descended, many of
them performed prostrations and encircled the ancient stupa next to the tree —
a descendant of the original — where the Buddha is believed to have attained
enlightenment.
Since the Dalai Lama escaped over the
mountains from Tibet to India in 1959, Indian governments have treated him as
an honored guest in Dharamsala, a hill town in the country’s north, but they
long kept him at arm’s length to avoid offending the Chinese. Now, that may be
changing.
The Dalai Lama appeared prominently at an
event with India’s president in Delhi last month. And Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has made preserving India’s ancient heritage a priority, becoming the
first prime minister in decades to visit Bodh Gaya.
“I don’t believe it’s a fundamental shift of
position, but certainly what you’re seeing is trending towards perhaps a less
self-
conscious expression of our sentiments and
our support for the Tibetan cultural identity and the high standing the Dalai
Lama enjoys here in India,” said Nirupama Menon Rao, a former foreign secretary
and ambassador to China.
The support is key, as the Tibetan exile
community faces uncertain times. The Dalai Lama has said that when he dies, he
may choose not to be reincarnated, as Buddhist belief holds, or that he could
come back as a woman. But China has signaled that it will control the search
for the next Dalai Lama by anointing its own Panchen Lama, another important
religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Some of the attendees said they are worried
that this year’s Kalachakra will be the last the Dalai Lama will perform. The
octogenarian moves and speaks more slowly now, and he had to be helped to the
elaborate throne on the dais by two monks.
“He can’t go into top gear anymore,” said
Gaden Tashi, a Tibetan from Kathmandu, Nepal. “But he keeps saying he’s happy
and healthy.”
One young Tibetan-language tutor who made the
risky journey from China recalled that when he unrolled his prayer mat at Bodh
Gaya and got his first glimpse of the Dalai Lama, “I couldn’t control myself; I
thought it was a dream.”
The tutor, 29, arrived Jan. 3, weeks after
his trip began in a small village in the Tibetan area of Amdo. He paid a guide
to take him to Kathmandu, where he received legal papers from the Indian
Embassy to make the pilgrimage.
Almost immediately, he said, speaking on the
condition of anonymity, frightening messages began appearing on his WeChat,
China’s popular social-media platform. He said police sent a warning through
his parents that he should return by Jan. 3, the day the Kalachakra would
begin. His mother cried and begged him to come home soon. Others sent photos of
pilgrims who were met at the airport only to have their passports sliced into
pieces by police.
He said he now feels he cannot return to
China, but he believes his sacrifice has been worth it.
“Every Tibetan has a dream — to meet the
Dalai Lama,” he said. “I told my parents I have no regret, even if I die.”
Luna Lin in Beijing and Swati Gupta in New
Delhi contributed to this report.
Read more
