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The Truth About Tibet
Monk protest scuppers controlled media tour of Tibet - Times Online
Monk protest scuppers controlled media tour of Tibet - Times Online
Monk protest scuppers controlled media tour of Tibet
(Andy Wong/AP)
These monks from the main temple in Lhasa ambushed the official tour of journalists to protest against Chinese rule
Jane Macartney in Beijing
Tibetan monks staged a daring protest against Chinese rule, disrupting an official government tour for foreign journalists with screams that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for violence and demands for religious freedom.
The astonishing outburst by about 30 monks came as the first group of journalists to visit Lhasa since the violent March 14 riot was being shown around the Jokhang temple, the holiest shrine in the Tibetan canon.
An Associated Press reporter, Charles Hutzler, described one young Buddhist monk who yelled “Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!” and then burst into tears.
He described how the monks had rushed over to stop the reporters from being taken into an inner sanctum of the temple, saying they were upset that a government administrator was telling the journalists that Tibet had been part of China for centuries.
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About 30 monks, speaking first in Tibetan and then in Mandarin Chinese so that the reporters could understand them, said they knew that they almost certainly faced arrest for their action but that they were willing to take the risk.
One monk said: “They want us to crush the Dalai Lama and that is not right.”
China has renewed its vilification campaign of Tibet’s exiled temporal leader, accusing him of orchestrating the riot when hundreds of Tibetans rampaged through the streets of Lhasa in a frenzy of ethnic violence, stabbing and beating ethnic Han Chinese and setting fire to Chinese shops and offices.
China says 22 people died, while Tibetan exiles say the violence, plus a harsh crackdown afterwards, have left nearly 140 people dead.
Another monk in the Jokhang said: “This had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama.” Government handlers shouted to the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away during the protest, the Associated Press journalist reported.
The monks said troops who had been guarding the temple since the riot had been removed the night before the reporters’ visit. One monk said they were upset that some of the people brought to worship at the temple were not true believers but were Communist Party members.
The outburst of anger at the Jokhang temple is particularly unusual since the 120 or so monks who live there are among the most carefully watched and best cared-for of any Tibetan religious institution.
The monks at the Jokhang, the focus of every Tibetan pilgrim, are believed to be the only ones in Tibet who receive a government stipend. In addition, their income is supplemented by the huge donations received from the numerous pilgrims who pour into the temple each day, coming from all Tibetan regions.
One Tibetan resident told The Times he happened to enter the temple just before the protest. The resident, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, said he had noticed that the armed security forces guarding the temple had disappeared this morning.
He saw several people burning incense at two sacred altars outside the temple and, recognising them as plainclothes police, asked if he could enter the temple. One said to him: “Go in, go in quickly. It’s open now.”
He made his way into the temple with a group of nomad pilgrims from the Amdo region of Tibet to pay ritual morning obeisances at the temple’s many altars.
He said he had been astonished to see one monk shouting and then weeping in front of a group of foreigners. “I never expected that the Jokhang temple would have so many brave monks.”
The reputation of the monks who serve in the Jokhang is not high in Lhasa, many of whose residents regard them as government employees who want a good salary.
The worshipper said that as soon as the monks began shouting he was ordered to leave the temple. Temple officials said to him “The temple is closed now. Now more worship. Please leave.”
China rarely allows foreign reporters into Tibet under normal circumstances, so the media tour that began yesterday was meant to underscore the communist leadership's determination to contain any damage ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August are intended to celebrate China as a modern, rising power.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported on the action by the monks, but did not say what the monks yelled out. It said: “The media tour soon resumed.”
The rioting and four days of protests that preceded it were the worst anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa in nearly two decades and they sparked protests in Tibetan areas across a vast portion of western China.
where our breeding prevents using such language!
