China-Tibet

Wallpaper Potala Palace

China is plotting to eradicate Buddhism in Tibet

Allegedly, Xi Jinping's administration is trying to transform the lives of Buddhists and their identities by removing religious thoughts from their minds. China's persecution of Tibetan Buddhists is not a new phenomenon, it is a long-standing one.

Ever since the occupation of Tibet in 1951, there have been attempts to overthrow the Buddha's doctrine and culture by indiscriminately killing and oppressing Buddhists, which is emerging anew under the current administration.

Lobsang Sangay, head of the Central Tibetan Administration at Dharamsala in India, recently told the media in Delhi that the Chinese government has so far destroyed 98 percent of Buddhist temples in Tibet, killing hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns.

"The Chinese Communist Party has destroyed our religion and is still killing Buddhists as well as continuing that destruction."

Allegedly, in addition to persecution over time, the common people of Tibet are trying to divert from the path of religion by showing greed for a luxurious life. Today's consumerist Chinese government, which is running for capitalism in the guise of communism, is reportedly investing heavily in various parts of Tibet, including Lhasa.

At the same time, efforts are being made to erase the language and ethnic culture of the local people. It is learned that Buddhism is now being taught in Mandarin, China, instead of Tibetan.

About 70 years ago, before the Chinese People's Liberation Army launched a military operation in Tibet, Mao Zedong, chairman of the Communist Party of China, issued a stern warning that Tibetan religious beliefs should not be harmed.

He said the culture and religion of the Tibetans should be respected. The aim was to get closer to the local people, at least temporarily, without resorting to cultural aggression. Not only that, the Communist Party of China promised in Articles 7 and 13 of the 16-point agreement that followed in 1951 that the religious beliefs, social customs and practices of the Tibetans would be respected and the lamas' places of worship would be protected.

At the same time, it was promised that the Chinese army would not snatch a single thread from the locals. The irony of history is that in the end the CCP took away everything from the Tibetans, even their language and religion. The politics of this deception China has recently done with the Philippines over maritime disputes and land borders, most recently, with India.

China's aggression against the Tibetans increased greatly during China's so-called Cultural Revolution. Even at the time of economic liberalization, China's iron fist on Tibet did not loosen.

Since Xi Jinping came to power, sophisticated surveillance has begun with traditional surveillance. Xi Jinping's attacks on Tibetan Buddhists and other believers are particularly noticeable.

Sarah Cook, a researcher, sheds light on a very important issue: During Xi's authoritarian rule, the situation of seven different nations, with a population of 350 million, deteriorated in China.

In a 2017 article entitled "The Battle for China's Spirit" the situation in all four communities, especially in China, has deteriorated, with religious persecution on the rise. They are Protestant Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Muslims from the Hui and Uyghur communities.

Bitter Winter, an online magazine on religious freedom and human rights in China, has written in detail about the Chinese Communist Party's attack on these four communities.

It said arrests on the publication and promotion of Buddhist scriptures had increased significantly during Xi Jinping's tenure. If a shopkeeper sells a banned Buddhist book, he can be fined up to Renminbi 50,000, or about USD 7,100.

But why this repression on Tibetan Buddhists? The reason, according to various researchers on the subject, is the growing interest of the Chinese people in Tibetan Buddhism and the unwavering devotion of the Tibetan people to the religion. As a result, the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China are suffering from a kind of insecurity over the legitimacy of China's role as a regulator of the Tibetans.

A 2017 joint report by Free Tibet and Tibet Watch stated that the two largest religious academies in eastern Tibet, Larung Gar and Yerchen Gar, had been destroyed in exactly the same way. In addition to Tibetan and Chinese followers, thousands of people from various countries in Southeast Asia used to come to these two institutions. This was seen as a major threat to the CCP's authority, as it was assumed that such places were the arena of Tibetan nationalism.

Pakistan wanted to erase the language and culture of the people of Bangladesh in the name of Islamization. His friend China wants to uproot the religion and culture of the Tibetans and make them Chinese.