http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3792810.ece
April 22, 2008
China tries to teach Tibet a lesson that the monks have refused to
learn
Pictures of the Dalai Lama are banned under rules of patriotic
education
Jane Macartney in Beijing
=46rom civil servants to yak herders, barley farmers and street traders,
the residents of the Tibetan capital and surrounding countryside are
being subjected to a two-month re-education campaign to combat anti-
Chinese sentiment.
Under the latest drive to instil a sense of patriotism =97 titled
=93Oppose splittism, protect stability, encourage development=94 =97 those
involved in the anti-Chinese Lhasa riots of March 14 will be asked to
denounce their actions and condemn others who took part.
China says that 22 people died when Tibetans rampaged through Lhasa,
stabbing and stoning ethnic Han Chinese and burning shops and offices.
For thousands of monks across the restive Himalayan region and in
adjacent provinces, such campaigns have become part of life in the
monasteries.
Political education, an occasional if unwelcome interruption into
monastic life, has become a daily ritual for monks such as Wangchuk =97
not his real name =97 who no longer have the freedom to watch the latest
DVD, surf the internet or chat with friends on their mobile phones.
Wangchuk's monastery has been his home since he was a child. He gets
up at dawn, offers holy water and lights a yak butter lamp to honour
the Buddha protector of his temple and the Dalai Lama =97 in all his 14
reincarnations.
Under more peaceable cir***stances Wangchuk's afternoon would have
comprised an array of different activities, from saying prayers for
the dead =93to help their soul reach Heaven=94 to debates with his fellow
monks or time spent with his teacher.
Now, the monasteries have been closed to the public and a very
different study session forms part of his timetable: patriotic
education:
=93This is compulsory. There's no excuse for not attending =97 unless
you're ill and then you have to have a note from doctor.=94
The sessions used to be called for a week once every two or three
months. They now take place almost daily. =93We gather in the main hall
and Communist Party officials deliver a speech telling us to be
patriotic and they give each monk a paper to read.=94
This session takes place in the morning; in the afternoon the monks
are summoned to answer questions. =93Usually it's pretty relaxed. If I
can't remember my answers then I just repeat the same as the monk in
front of me.
=93Sometimes it turns more serious. That is when the police arrive. They
stand beside each monk listening carefully to make sure each answer is
correct. If the police come we have to lie. We have to say, =91I love
the Motherland. I don't love him'. They don't require you to explain
who =91him' is, because we all know.=94
Beijing has blamed the recent violence on the Dalai Lama and his
followers. =93We learn from the patriotic education that many things are
banned. For example, we can't have pictures of the Dalai Lama and we
mustn't listen to what people outside China tell us.=94
In the past few weeks groups of Tibetan monks have staged highly
publicised protests, including hijacking official tours of the region
put on for foreign journalists.
The latest re-education campaign, which will include films and
television programmes, suggests that China fears the spread of the
discontent.
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