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TIN News Update/ 7 September, 1996 / total no of pages: 2 ISSN 1355-3313

A campaign to re-educate Tibetan monks, which the Chinese authorities have confirmed is taking place in the main monasteries in Lhasa, is being extended to include all monasteries in the Tibet Autonomous Region, according to documents issued by the re-education teams.

The campaign, whose official objective is to educate monks in patriotism, aims to eradicate support for the independence movement, and monks say it focusses on a controversial demand that they make a five point declaration which includes an expression of direct opposition to the exiled Dalai Lama.

The documents also confirm that in one major institution monks who show a "bad attitude" in the re-education classes will be expelled from the monastery.

"Those with a bad attitude to the studying and those with poor results or deliberately causing obstacles to the study will be severely criticised and their right to remain among the number of monks will be struck out [dgon sde'i grwa grangs khongs kyi 'os bab med pa bzo rgyu yin]," says an official notice handed to each monk at Sera monastery, where a re-education team has been working since mid-June.

Last month an official said that force was not being used to get the monks to agree with the government's line. "It's not a question of expelling the lamas, who are free to pursue their religious activities within the law," an official from Lhasa's Foreign Affairs Bureau told the AFP on 16th August.

"The government of the autonomous region of Tibet has decided to launch a patriotic education campaign in the temples," said the official, who named Ganden, Drepung and the Jokhang temple in Lhasa as monasteries where the campaign was taking place.

The Sera document, dated 15th July 1996, says that "the Comprehensive Propaganda Education drive is an important method in the next stage in fixing the numbers of the masses of monks in the monastery" and orders groups to be set up to decide which monks will be allowed to stay.

"The good students should not only be praised but should also be given consideration in advance for their names to remain among the number of monks", says the document, which was issued to each Sera monk by the "Sera Monastery Work Affairs Committee" - a synonym for the re-education team - in conjunction with the monastery's management committee.

The document, entitled "The Important Points to be Understood by All the Sera Monks During the Study Session" says that the purpose of the patriotic education drive is "to implement the Party's policy on religion totally and correctly". It also aims to create "harmonious co-existence between the religious and socialist societies", and to implant "the thought of patriotism" and "the views of the government" in the minds of the monks, as well as to teach them to oppose any pro-independence activities.

The document orders the monks to study four re-education text books, to attend lectures and meetings punctually and to take notes during the lectures. They are instructed not to make any noise during the sessions or to leave early, and they must not write over their re-education manuals.

The monks are also told to do one hour's home-work each day, and to attend tutorials and smaller classes which will be held in each hostel. The document orders them to "actively speak out and contribute" in the sessions and to "speak from their hearts" to officials - "snying gtam shod pa" in Tibetan, a phrase which usually refers to declarations between lovers.

Re-education sessions at Sera are reported to begin each day at 3pm, by which time tourists have to leave, according to one tourist who visited Sera last month. The daily discipline of monastic debates is now no longer allowed at Sera, claimed the tourist, who asked not to be named.

The four re-education manuals which the Sera monks have to study are listed as Nos. 1-4 of a series called "Explanations and Proclamations for the Propagation of Patriotic Education in Monasteries Throughout the TAR". Each one gives a "Proclamation" on a different topic: "Tibetan History", "Opposing Splittism", "Knowledge of the Law" and "Religious Policy".

The books, which average about 100 pages in length, were published in June 1996 by a previously unknown office whose title - the "Administrative Office for the Propagation of Patriotic Education in Monasteries Throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region" - indicates that the current campaign is due to cover monasteries throughout the region.

An official newspaper in Tibet gave an indication two weeks ago that the campaign would be applied to the whole region. "The monks in our region must carry out education on patriotism and emancipate those young monks who are deceived by the Dalai clique reactionary forces," said the Tibet Daily in a front page editorial on August 23, according to reports by AFP and Reuters.

Tourists who visited Shalu monastery, near Shigatse, Palden Choede monastery in Gyantse, and Sakya monastery, all in central Tibet, said that there were re-education teams installed at all three institutions. There are daily four-hour re-education sessions at Sakya from 3pm till 7pm, and thrice weekly sessions are held at Gyantse, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, one tourist said she had been told.

The work teams which carry out the re-education are larger than usual, and seem to number on average one official to every four monks. A team of 5 officials is at Shalu, which has about 20 monks; a team of 15 is at Gyantse, with 60 monks; and a team of 20 is at Sakya where there are 80 monks. At Sera monastery, near Lhasa, there are said to be 70 officials in the re-education team, not 150 as stated in an earlier report, and at Drepung, with about 4-500 monks, there are 180 officials including cooks and drivers.

The teams are expected to stay three months in each monastery and will live in their allotted monastery during the campaign. The ranks of the officials are much higher than usual, at least at Drepung, where the team includes four provincial level officials, and 40 officials with prefectural level rank, according to a source in the monastery. Commentators said that the involvement of such senior personnel was a display of political force, but that high leaders are unlikely to take part in the day to day operation of the campaign or to reside at the monastery.

Monks from branch monasteries have to travel to their parent institutions to attend the re-education sessions, according to reports from Lhasa. The monks have to keep attendance slips to prove that they attended for each session.

Arrests at Sera -

The names of three monks arrested at Sera monastery in July have now been made available by unofficial sources in Lhasa. One was a monk in his 20s called Ngawang Oeser, who is believed to have been accused of possessing or distributing leaflets or pro-independence literature. A teacher and a junior chant-leader at the monastery, Norbu, in his 30s, was also detained because he was found to have brought back books and tapes after a recent visit to the exile Tibetan community in India. The third known detainee is Kelsang, age 25, a monk at Sera Me college within Sera monastery, who was arrested for printing a text about Tibetan history. Kelsang, who comes from the village of Lhunkhang in Nyemo county, is a skilled wood-block printer who worked in the printing section of Sera monastery.

This is the second time Kelsang, whose full name is believed to be Kelsang Phuntsog, has been arrested for a political offence. His previous arrest was in Lhasa on 4th August 1991, when he tried to hand put leaflets on which he had printed slogans including "Tibet is independent!" and "Human Rights for People in Tibet!" He is believed to have served a three year sentence at Gutsa prison for distributing the leaflets.

The Sera arrests are now believed to have taken place on about 1st July. There are reports of an additional 4 or 5 arrests from Sera in mid-July, but these reports are unconfirmed.

Note: Copies of these documents can be obtained from TIN: the Sera document on "Important Points"; three of the re-education manuals; a photograph of Kelsang Phuntsog (1991) and copy of his 1991 leaflet.[END]