Monks at one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most revered monasteries are studying the political theories of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, which has appeared as a criteria on whether or not they can remain in the monastery.
“We have political study sessions four days a week from Tuesday,” said one young monk, although a middle aged monk said he only had the sessions once a week.
When asked, most of the monks said were required to study the “theory of the Three Represents,” the awkwardly named new political ideology of the ruling Communist Party.
The theory, attributed to Jiang, who remains chairman of the Central Military Commission despite giving up the presidency, aims to expand the representation of the Marxist party to include “advanced production forces, advanced cultural forces and the overall masses of Chinese people.”
“We mainly study religion at the monastery, but we also study some history and culture,” said Nien Drak, a living Lama and the political director of the Tashilhunpo monastery.
“Religion and culture are very closely tied, so we are researching this to understand (what advanced cultural forces are),” he said.
Nien Drak is the director of the Democratic Committee of Tashilhunpo, a mechanism for implementing political dimensions to the monastery.
Other monks widely doubted that the new ideology would offer greater political influence for Tibetan Buddhism, which has been part and parcel of China’s attempt to extend its influence in the region and strictly control the traditional religious aristocracy.
The British-based Free Tibet Movement has said the “political re-education classes” help government officials weed out politically disloyal monks.
