TIBETAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE
JUNE 30, 1997
VOLUME II: NUMBER 12
TIBET IN RUINS
China's on-going campaign to destroy all physical signs of Tibet's ancient civilisation is leaving piles of rubble across the land. China's aim to wipe
out all traces of Tibetan religion has seen the destruction of more than 6000 Buddhist monasteries since 1949 and the destruction or pillage of countless precious religious statues and artifacts. Secular architecture has also been targeted for its link with Tibetan culture. The capital city of Lhasa in particular is undergoing severe transformation through massive demolition of colourful traditional style housing, replaced with concrete Chinese housing compounds designed to house the huge influx of Chinese settlers. Recent actions reveal these policies continue to be applied at an alarming rate.
Kham Monasteries Destroyed
According to a recent report from the Xinhua News Agency published in the
Tibet Daily (Tibetan version) on 25 May 1997, Chinese authorities have begun
to impose strict restrictions on the construction and renovation of monasteries in Kham (incorporated into the Chinese province of Sichuan). In the last year alone 526 monasteries have been destroyed in one area.
According to the report, "the social life of the people in this province is
diverting towards the revival of the old feudal system and therefore the authorities have considered it vital to forbid revitalisation of the blind
faith and other bad elements in the name of religion." The authorities boast that they have "taken effective steps in destroying thousands of monasteries
in the region which has ultimately resulted in the eradication of the revival of bad influences of feudalism."
Sui-Ning city is considered the "most badly influenced" amongst the villages in Sichuan, where "bad influences" of constructing monasteries are taking place. Two counties and one region under Sui-Ning City have built more than 1200 monasteries, of which 637 monasteries were built in Hui-hung county. On average, each smaller monastery was said to have cost more than one hundred thousand yuan, and each bigger monastery was estimated at one million yuan.
As a result of these activities the central and provincial authorities have
reportedly taken the case of Sichuan very seriously and have stated absolutely that unnecessary building of monasteries must be banned.
Since the Spring of 1996, Sui-Ning city officials "in co-operation with the
general public" have demolished 526 monasteries and 111 very large monasteries of considerable value are reportedly to be used as homes for the aged, cultural centres and forest guard houses.
The statute governing the use of public property has been changed to allow
this conversion. The demolished areas are being used for farming and planting of flowers, and the materials taken from the demolition are being used to build primary schools and apartments for five building contractors.
Lhasa's Historic Buildings
A palace built by the Sixth Dalai Lama in the seventeenth century and regarded as one of the most important historic buildings remaining in Lhasa is being demolished this month, the Tibet Information Network has reported.
The Tromsikhang Palace had been awarded protected status by the Chinese government and was one of four buildings in the heart of the Old City officially designated as due for "strict preservation as a cultural relic" by the municipal development plan for the area, the "Detailed Plan for the Lhasa Barkor", printed internally in 1994.
The demolition is reportedly part of a five-year wave of "modernisation" in Lhasa which by the end of last year had led to the demolition of 350 of the 600 historic buildings which stood in the Old City when the Chinese arrived four decades ago. Twenty- eight historic buildings in the area are reported to have been demolished since January, 15 of them in the last month.
The Tibetan quarters of Lhasa today cover just 2% of the urban area while in 1950 they constituted the entire city.
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CHINESE COLONISATION
On 1 July 1997 Hong Kong's democratically elected Legislative Council will be replaced by a Beijing-backed provisional body. Plans to amend laws so as to ban protests on the grounds of "national security" have prompted grave concerns that Hong Kong will be subject to many of repressive policies imposed in Tibet.
While China has vowed to allow Hong Kong a large degree of autonomy, similar
promises were made to Tibet in the 1950's by the committee overseeing Tibet's integration into Communist China. As Free Tibet Campaign commented on 24 June, 1997, " Tibet has since been treated much like a colony, with large-scale resettlement of Chinese and the imposition of Chinese laws, language and doctrine".
The following letter, dated 20 June 1997, was able to be smuggled from Lhasa, Tibet. Addressed to the United Nations it is a plea to the world to look at the brutal colonial rule in place in Tibet.
To: The Chairman of U.N.
The Newsroom of V.O.A., C.N.N. and B.B.C.
We are Tibetan Independent and Freedom Party (T.I.F.P.). We write this letter to you from Tibet on behalf of six million Tibetan people.
Now Hong Kong is handing over to China from British. All over the world are paying attention to this affair! But not any country or organisation realize
Tibet - Chinese colony. No one reports about Tibetan condition! We think our country Tibet is a colonial country. Tibetan people are under colonial rule. China is colonialist! So we make our urgent appeal. We are asking China Government to give up colonial rule in Tibet. Especially this time when China is taking back Hong Kong from British hand.
Tibet has been getting too much trouble since 1950. We almost lost all of our civilization. Forty years gone now. We are still living in the bitter Chinese colonized domination. But no one pays attention about China's colony - our country Tibet! As you know we have more than two thousand years independent history before 1950. Tibetan people are expecting for free and independent from China since 1950 up to now - especially this time!
British give up Hong Kong's colonized ruling!
So we, most of Tibetan people also demand China that China should give up colonized rule in Tibet. We think that get free is our Tibetan right! Tibet not belong to China like Hong Kong not belong to British! Why China can take back Hong Kong from British colonised rule but don't give up its colonized rule in Tibet! This is for human right! for humans Dignity and Freedom! Including Tibetan people!
That we most of Tibetan special requiring Chinese government. Finish Chinese
colonized rule in Tibet. Set Tibet free! We are also asking U.N. and all of the world. Pay close attention to Tibet situation. We are expecting from you support and help! We are one type of humanity. We also need dignity and free life!!!
Yours faithfully: [name withheld]
Lhasa
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"MY LAND, YOUR LAND"
Nyima Tashi, a 25 year-old former monk from Lhading Village, Ngamring County (Shigatse region) reports on the stifling socio-economic policies the Chinese intend to implement in his village.
"It was recently declared in our village that grazing land will be distributed to each household, regardless of whether a particular household rears animals or not. It was suggested that households who do not have animals could sell their allotted share of grazing land to those who do.
My greatest fear is that this type of land distribution could be the cause of many disputes and soon people will start saying "My land, Your land" which was totally unheard of in earlier times. Such actions may sound superficial but the Chinese do not make policies for no reason. Very often such policies act as a facade for the actual goal of destroying communal harmony.
The animals are receiving the worst treatment from these new policies that are constantly being revised. A quota on the number of animals that can be reared has been imposed and any household exceeding this limit must kill the rest of the animals. I think this is to cause stagnation within households and to suppress any prosperity.
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NUNNERY EXPANSION AT A HALT
I am 29 years old and come from Nyen village in Seshen township in Toelung Dechen Dzong under Lhasa City. I come from a very small nunnery of just 15 nuns of which five are still langushing in Drapchi Prison for participating in a demonstration in 1994 in front of the Tsuklakhang (Lhasa's main temple).
In 1995, the most senior nun and the head of the village sought permission for the expansion of the nunnery so as to accomodate more nuns. The whole of the village contributed to the construction preparations. We were even able to find a sponsor for the project from Lhasa on the condition that all labour be carried out by the village people. This was agreed upon with no hesitation. Finally, when everything was ready, the Chinese "Strike Hard" campaign was launched. The authorities informed us that for at least five years there would be no renovation or expansion of nunneries or monasteries.
All work and no pay:
There are seven members of my family: my parents, elder sister, her husband and their two children. My brother-in-law works as a labourer in our small town. His salary is supposed to be 1000 yuan per year but he has never received his salary on time. This delay creates so much distress within the family but there is nothing that we can possibly do.
When some of the other people facing the same crisis approached their foreman, they were told that the factory had not yet released the budget for salaries. Yet when the factory is approached, another story is given.
We suspect that the foremen are taking some profit before the salaries are
distributed. It takes a minimum of one year before the next pay is received, yet even then, only half the full sum is given. My brother cannot however fford to leave the factory as the money is much needed at the farm.
On Education:
We have a Mangtsug ( village level primary schools which receive no financial support from the Chinese Government) in our village called "Nyen School". The majority of the teachers are Tibetans but the Chinese language teacher is constantly changing.
The most recent addition to the teachers' department is a student who just
graduated from a Zhungtsug school (a Chinese government-established primary school). He is not even included in the school staff list.
There was a protest from the people as a response to this recruitment because every day each student must pay one yuan for this teacher who cannot even teach properly. The people's plea was ignored and this young student-teacher is still teaching in the school.
Expulsion:
The source also reported the expulsion of more than 100 nuns from the nunnery called Drigung Tertum in Meldro County under Lhasa City at the end of November 1996. Before the expulsions the nunnery had about 220. The reason provided for the expulsions was that the number was exceeding the limit.
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PROFILE: 14 YEARS FOR POSTERS AND SONGS
Tenzin Thupten from Michungri nunnery was about to complete her prison term when she participated in the recording of songs conveying messages of freedom and words to her friends from inside the prison. Today Tenzin Thupten is languishing in one of the worst prisons in Tibet - Drapchi Prison - with a prison term of fourteen years.
Tenzin Thupten (layname Dawa Yangkyi), born in Meldro Gongkar in Lhasa City, is a 26 year-old nun from Michungri nunnery. Her parents, now in their 50's, are nomads and she has 4 or 5 younger siblings. Tenzin had no opportunity to go to school as she was required to help her parents with farming which was also their means of livelihood.
In 1988, when she was around 18 years old, Tenzin joined the nunnery - an
opportunity in disguise for her to procure some education. At the time the nunnery was being restored and she also assisted with the renovation work.
On 5 March 1989, she participated in the protest that took place in Lhasa. Filled with courage and determination and indifferent to the potential consequences, she called for the restoration of Tibet's freedom. That day she escaped the Chinese authorities by running away in the midst of the crowd.
After that, when a Chinese "Re-education Management Committee" came to the nunnery to launch the re-education policy, Tenzin and a group of other nuns pasted posters both inside and outside of the nunnery. The posters condemned
Chinese rule in Tibet and the presence of the Re-Education Management Committee in the nunnery.
As a result, the members of the Management Committee decreed that Tenzin Thupten and the others nuns be expelled from the nunnery. The head of the nunnery, Ven. Ngawang Dechen and Jampa Choezom reasoned that Tenzin Thupten and the others could not be expelled, explaining to the Committee that violation of the basic Buddhist principles were the sole grounds for expulsion from the nunnery. Ultimately it was Tenzin's extensive contribution to the renovation of the nunnery which prevented her from being expelled.
In 1990, at the time of Shoton (the Tibetan opera festival) in Norbulinka (the Summer palace of the Dalai Lama), eight nuns from Michungri Nunnery and five from Garu Nunnery held a short protest. Soon after the protest began Chinese officials arrived. The nuns were beaten severely and then arrested.
Tenzin Thupten was taken to Gutsa Prison where she was interrogated while
being brutally beaten. She was charged with "counter-revolutionary" activities and later sentenced to five years in prison by the Lhasa City People's Intermediate Court. She was subsequently transferred to Drapchi Prison where she was held in the 1st unit.
In Drapchi Prison, political prisoners were subjected to particularly stringent rules and were a constant target for cruel prison punishments such as forced labour. Tenzin was kept under a strict time-table of severe beatings and other methods of torture and survived on an extremely poor prison diet.
Nonetheless, she did not lose her will to struggle. In 1993 she and a group of 13 other nuns recorded songs with a crude tape recorder smuggled into the prison and the recording was later distributed in Tibet. The songs carried messages of freedom and some words to their friends and relatives outside the prison.
When Tenzin's involvement was discovered, her sentence was increased by a further nine years bringing her term to a total of 14 years.
Tenzin's friends in the nunnery say that her family has to strive hard to make ends meet. Tenzin's mother, her most frequent visitor, visits the prison dressed shabbily with one child on her back and one in the front.
Today Tenzin Thupten suffers from a kidney disorder, one of the most common ailments suffered by Tibet's political prisoners. Yet, her courage and determination remain strong. If she should refrain from exercising her freedom of expression in the prison, she will be released in probably the year 2004.
Express your concern over Tenzin's arbitrary detention - a punishment for
expressing her freedom of opinion, and the inhumane conditions of imprisonment under which she struggles. Write a letter of protest addressed to the Chinese premier Li Peng and send it to TCHRD for forwarding.
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HERMITS TARGETED FOR NEW TAXES
According to a recent arrival from Domtoe township in Taktse county under Lhasa City, the Chinese have extended their religious repression to include hermits who are peacefully living their life in the mountains. A mountain of retreat called the Dhrak Yepa is home to about 80 religious recluses who have built their own small shacks, strive on begged food and lead a peaceful life.
On 22 August 1996, six men from Domtoe township in Taktse county came and called all hermits for a meeting. They announced; "We have come to enter all names of those who dwell in this mountain as hermits. Up to now we have been very lenient and have not charged you for anything.
"However, from today onwards you shall have to pay 10 yuan for the space (land) that you occupy, 5 yuan for the road that you use and 15 yuan for the water and fire wood that you use daily. In total, 30 yuan per month. And if you fail to do so, you will have to leave this place".
These measures have greatly upset the mountain's residents. With the advent of the new policy of taxation, about fifty people have already left.
There are also confirmed reports that there is a possibility that Chinese workteams will soon be sent in to the region.
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The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is an independent centre which aims to promote and protect human rights and a democratic polity and procedure for Tibet, to educate Tibetans on human rights principles and to work with other human rights and democracy groups as part of a world-wide movement towards these ends. The TCHRD is registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act 21 of 1860.
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