EFE – Beijing
21/07/2016
Demolitions and forced evictions begin in the largest monastery in Tibet
Chinese workers accompanied by police, Government officials and plainclothes soldiers began demolition of Larung Gar Monastery, the largest in Tibet and one of the largest Buddhist teaching institutions in the world, the Free Tibet organization denounced today in a statement.
According to the London-based organization, Demolitions began early Wednesday morning 20 July, months before the deadline (30 October) given by local authorities for the monastery to reduce the number of residents in the institution of 10.000 a 5.000.
The authorities threatened to completely demolish the monastery if before that 30 October, its population had not been reduced to about 1.500 monks and 3.500 nuns, as part of a restructuring process of Buddhist centers ordered by the Chinese central government.
Photos and videos published by Free Tibet show the first destroyed buildings of Larung Gar, a monastery on the side of a remote mountain surrounded by hundreds of cabins where religious and lay people reside and which together make up a spectacular picture on the Roof of the World.
"En este día de destrucción del paraíso, the pain in my heart comes from deep inside, acompañado de lágrimas incesantes", said a Tibetan citizen quoted by Free Tibet, organization that condemned in its statement the destruction of buildings and evictions.
Chinese officials justified the demolition on security grounds, since according to them the enormous concentration of houses in that mountainous area could cause danger to the residents, although students from Larung Gar stressed that this justification is not used in other overpopulated areas of China..
"¿Where are the equality?, the rule of law, public welfare, religious freedom and the equal rights of the nationalities that they say, if the houses of innocent practitioners of a religion who live a simple life are destroyed?", added one of the students in the statement.
The director of Free Tibet, Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, aseguró que "la demolición de Larung Gar no tiene nada que ver con superpoblación, es sólo otra táctica de China para socavar la influencia del budismo en el Tíbet".
"Están llevando la violencia a un lugar de paz y espiritualidad, leaving 5.000 monjes y monjas sin hogar", the activist added.
As part of the restructuring process, The ruling Communist Party or local government officials will become the majority in the managing body of the Larung Gar Buddhist school, a practice that has become common in other Tibetan monasteries.
