Chronicle
Rafael Canas – 22/09/2016
Lhasa (China), 22 sep (EFE).- The Buddhist religion remains an area of political dispute in Tibet, the Chinese autonomous region where the Tibetan population remains very faithful to its beliefs while Beijing seeks to keep its political ramifications under control.
While China affirms that it respects Tibetan religiosity but at the same time prohibits symbols or images of the Dalai Lama (whom he considers a pro-independence political leader), Exile groups denounce government intrusion on religious freedom and Dalai Lama ban.
The trip that a small group of foreign correspondents recently made to Tibet showed some of the complicated tangle behind the exercise of Tibetan religious faith..
First of all, Tibet is an overwhelmingly religious territory. It is normal to find ethnic Tibetan people on the sidewalks praying and spinning their prayer wheels as they walk..
The core of this religiosity is the Jokhang temple, in the historic center of Lhasa, whose origins date back to the 7th century and is considered the most important and sacred by the ethnic Tibetan population.
Long before dawn, groups of faithful prostrate repeatedly (sometimes for hours) in front of the temple façade, while others walk around the large building while praying, always clockwise (some do it by crawling) and others stand at the door offering ceremonial shawls to Buddha.
The temple houses very special statues, among them the most revered in Tibet, that of a Sakyamuni Buddha who, according to tradition, Chinese princess Wengcheng brought a gift when she traveled to Tibet to marry King Songtsen Gampo, founder of the Tibetan empire in the 7th century and introducer of Buddhism in the territory.
Tibet is home to almost 1.300 Buddhist monasteries and temples, some of whom played a prominent role in the violent riots of 2008, from which Beijing increased its already strict control of the autonomous region.
The monasteries and convents, "que han estado entre los elementos más activos y vocales de la resistencia al dominio chino, han estado sometidos a una vigilancia severa", John Jones tells Efe, Free Tibet activist, a London-based organization.
Jones añade que los monasterios están obligados a ondear banderas chinas y que monjes y monjas "son forzados a admitir que Tíbet es una parte inalienable de China y a denunciar al dalai lama".
The formal position of the Chinese Government is that it defends religious freedom within the Constitution (that establishes the unity of the country) and the search for social unity. He also insists that the Dalai Lama seeks Tibetan independence.
"Todos los tibetanos disfrutan de libertad religiosa… todos los monasterios pueden mostrarles esa libertad", the vice president of the Tibetan regional government told reporters, Bianba Zhaxi.
Thus, despite his official atheism, The Communist Party of China has assumed the power to decide who will be the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama..
Perhaps to prevent China from using the next reincarnation to install a Beijing-friendly Dalai Lama, The current leader of Tibetan Buddhism has repeatedly suggested that he may not be reincarnated and be the last Dalai Lama., possibility that a formally atheist Chinese Government categorically rejects.
The ostracism to which the Dalai Lama is subjected in China was exemplified during the visit of the group of correspondents to the Potala Palace, his former official residence, and one of them asked the guide if tourists ask about the exiled religious leader.
At that moment, an official of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Tibetan Autonomous Regional Government, comenzó a exclamar "tenemos que irnos", "ya no hay tiempo".
After the informants insisted that they wanted an answer, the guide simply said, evasively, that many of the visitors (the vast majority are Chinese) They do not know Buddhism or the Dalai Lama, and to the few who ask, he points out that he lived in the palace for twenty years until he left the country..
In this sense, Jones denuncia "la continua denigración" of the Dalai Lama from Beijing, at the same time as the authorities' attempt to cut their ties with the Tibetan population.
The trip of correspondents, one of the few made by foreign journalists since the riots of 2008, He did not visit monasteries despite initial promises, and some excuses not to do it (they were far away, the road was blocked by landslides) They turned out to be lies.
Several of the informants tried to go from the place where they were (in the city of Nyinghi, some 450 kilometers east of Lhasa) to nearby Lamaling Monastery, but a police patrol car intercepted the taxi in which they were traveling and forced them to return to their hotel.. EFE
rcf/abc/alf
