Chinese authorities in revenge attacks on Tibetan monks
RADIO AUSTRALIA:
Presenter: Tom Fayle
Speaker: Dr Powers, a scholar in Tibetan religion and culture at the Australian National University
FAYLE: Now you did meet some Tibetan monks. What stories did you hear?
POWERS: Well, the most striking one was from a monk that I met at a Buddhist pilgrimage spot in China, who had escaped from a monastery in Eastern Tibet and he said that when he was there at his monastery, this was in late March, after the demonstration, some Chinese troops came into his monastery and started shooting the monks, randomly so it wasn't that they were looking for people in the protest. It was pure retaliation for the fact that they protested. He said that three of his closest friends had been shot dead right in front of him. He started running, and he heard more shots and more monks falling and then he managed to escape travelling by night over the next couple of weeks and he has no idea of what actually happened, because he hasn't been able to get any information in or out to his monastery.
FAYLE: We have been hearing that the monks in Tibet are being forced to take patriotic tests. What's involved here?
POWERS: Well, it's called patriotic re-education. The program started in 1996 and it was originally confined to the region of centre Tibet around Lhasa, the capital. In 2002, it was greatly extended, and now it's at all of the major monasteries across the Tibetan cultural area, which includes what the Chinese call Tibet and what has traditionally been Tibetan regions. Basically there are variations, but I actually obtained a classified document which is a manual that the cadres are given to run these courses.
The main thrust of it actually is denunciation of the Dalai Lama. According to all the monks that I have interviewed, the key factor is at the end of course, which is basically Communist indoctrination, but at the end of the course, they are required to sign a form officially denouncing the Dalai Lama. Those who do, according to the monks will pass the course, those who don't, no matter how good their grades have been will fail and that means they are usually expelled from their monasteries.
FAYLE: So, you say this expulsions from the monasteries. What other consequences are there of failing the test?
POWERS: Well, the expulsion from the monastery is quite significant, because it means that they can't function as a monk. It means they have no support. Many of those who refused to denounce the Dalai Lama end up basically having to escape, because they really have no way to continue to live in Tibet as monks. So about 3,000 to 4,000 Tibetans are escaping every year into exile, and the overwhelming majority are monks and nuns and overwhelmingly they say the reason is because they are unable to practice their religion. READ IT ALL
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