Tibet's Communist party boss says temples must be propaganda centres
Buddhist temples and monasteries in Tibet must become
propaganda centres for the ruling Communist Party, where monks and nuns learn
to "revere" science and appreciate the party's love, the troubled
region's top Chinese appointed official said. Rights groups and exiles say the officially atheist party
tramples on Tibetans' religious and cultural traditions and seeks to co-opt
religious figures for its own ends.
China, which "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1950,
says it guarantees freedom of religion and its rule ended serfdom and brought
development to a backward, poverty-stricken region. Writing in the influential fortnightly party magazine
Qiushi, Tibet's Communist Party boss Chen Quanguo said the more than 1,700
temples and monasteries and 46,000 monks and nuns had to be seen by the
government as "friends".
"Let the monks and nuns in the temples and monasteries
have a personal feeling of the party and government's care and warmth; let them
feel the party's benevolence, listen to the party's words and follow the
party's path," Chen wrote in Qiushi, which means "seeking
truth". He called for temples and monasteries in the region to be
outfitted with radios and televisions, as well as newspapers and reading rooms. "Monks and nuns should not have to go out of their
temples or monasteries to understand the party and government's policies and
social progress, or Tibet's peace, stability and good fortune, so as to be
guided to follow a path of revering scientific culture." Subscribers received the latest issue of the magazine on
Friday.
Chen has struck a similar line before, writing in late 2013
that Chinese officials in Tibet must build an "impenetrable defence"
against separatism and befriend monks and nuns, who are generally revered by
the devoutly Buddhist Tibetans. The government has tried, with varying degrees of success,
to prevent Tibetans from accessing information about exiled spiritual leader
the Dalai Lama and the exiled government on the Internet or via satellite
television. But many Tibetans are still able to get such news, either
via illegal satellite television or by skirting Chinese Internet restrictions.
Beijing calls the Nobel Peace Prize laureate a "wolf in
sheep's clothing" who seeks to use violent methods to establish an
independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in
1959, says he simply wants genuine autonomy for Tibet, and denies espousing
violence.