By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 28: The Chinese authorities in Drago County in the Kham region of Tibet have reportedly demolished a 99-foot statue of Buddha, and destroyed 45 huge prayer wheels that were erected near Drago monastery, sources cited by Dharamshala-based Tibet Watch said. The report published on Friday said that the county chief Wang Dongsheng was responsible for this demolition, a top official who was also involved in the widespread destruction of Larung Gar Buddhist Academy.
The massive statue was first built with a financial contribution of 4,000,00 Yuan ($6.3 million), whereas 1,800,000 Yuan (around 282,500 USD) were spent on prayer wheels by local Tibetans set in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the so-called Sichuan Province. The process of demolition took place from December 12 onwards with “military troops heavily deployed in the crossroads of its vicinity to prevent any form of protest,” according to the source.
The rights organization said that the statue was formally constructed with full approval of the local authorities, established for Buddhists’ belief that it would prevent famine, war and potential catastrophes of fire, water, earth and air. The local Chinese authorities, at the time of demolition, invalidated the documents related to the construction and said that the statue’s height was not allowed in the vicinity.
The bronze statue of Buddha was officially completed on October 5 in 2015, after consulting religious figures overseeing plans with respect to location, time, cardinal direction and layout of these activities. “This tragic wave of demolition follows the forced demolition of the nearby Gaden Namgyal Monastic School in late October this year. As a result, over a hundred of its young students were expelled and ordered an immediate return to their homes,” said the report. The Chinese government had ordered Tibetans to demolish a Tibetan Buddhist school after alleging that the school had “violated” the land use law, and the administration was only given three days to evacuate the premises.
3 Responses
Heartbreaking and completely unnecessary, shame on the Chinese government!
Her Well said! I have a similar opinion…
The flagrant disregard for the sentiments of the Tibetan people and bulldoze the 99 foot (over 30 meters) giant Gautam Buddha and forty five gigantic prayer wheels which costs close to seven million dollars is a crime only the infidel CCP is capable of. This is a deliberate attack on the inalienable rights of the the Tibetan people to practice their religion and worship their Buddha. This goes to show that the CCP criminal regime is hell bent in the complete destruction of Tibet’s unique, peaceful religion and culture that is supposed to be “protected” by the Chinese constitution.
Tibetans must speak up about the continuing atrocities the evil CCP is committing in Tibet. Our own policies that have been tailored to placate the CCP have been counter productive and have demonstrably harmed our struggle. The policy of appeasing the CCP went to the extent that even མི་མང་ལངས་གླུ་ was band and demonstrations against the CCP was frowned upon. This was in the belief that the CCP will reciprocate and come to the table. Alas, what a blunder!
Our present policy towards China is very much like that of Nehru’s which was full of ideals but little else. Nehru died a broken hearted man because his ideals blindsided him to see the true nature of the Chinese communist snake. He had trusted them as a gentleman would but they stabbed him in the back in return.
Our policy is also laden with ideals but lacks strategy and cunning. If we don’t change our tactics and show our ability to stand up to the wicket infidel, we will face the same fate as that of Nehru’s failure.
It’s time to push back against the CCP by aligning ourselves with great powers in their pursuit of bringing the CCP to its knees/regime change. The conditions are ripe when the CCP mafia is virtually the enemy of the whole world.
Nehru’s great blunder was his naivety to believe that China will never attack India. This let him to relinquish everything including India’s rights in Tibet and became a virtual lap dog of communist China. The Tibetans are also harbouring the ill conceived and delusional belief that China will not completely destroy Tibetan religion. The destruction of every monastery in Tibet from 1950s and 1960s was attributed to the Gang of Four to exonerate the CCP of the crime but the fact is, it continues to destroy monasteries, kill, imprison monks and nuns through out its military occupation for seventy odd years!!! The latest one will not be the last either!
There are two reasons behind the demolition of the holy Buddha statue and the prayer wheels. Firstly, Tibetan Buddhism is perceived by the CCP as an ideology that unifies the Tibetans as a people and sets them apart from the Chinese as having a seperate national identity. This irks the CCP to no end since it perceives the seeds of Tibetan nationalism. They have vigorously studied the fall of the Soviet Union. They came to the conclusion that the fifteen republics of the USSR had their distinct language, customs and religion which finally let them go their own way, culminating in the demise of the Soviet empire.
The other reason is, having such conspicuous show of the Buddhist presence draws the attention of Chinese people who have Buddhist roots. They perceive that if the Chinese and Tibetans become closely bound by the Buddhist faith, they will not be able to commit atrocities in Tibet as they have done with impunity until now. If the Chinese people show concern for the genocidal policies of the CCP, it threatens the use of merciless suppression of the Tibetans by demonising them as “separatists” “barbarians” and all the racist propaganda that has fed the Chinese public in order to keep them firmly on the side of the CCP.
Let it be known that there should be no illusion in the CCP’s ultimate goal of total destruction of Tibet and Tibetans by destroying the life blood of the Tibetan people that is Tibetan Buddhism. Nehru’s delusion led to India’s ignominious defeat at the hands of China and bringing China eye to eye with India and the present security nightmare for India. Tibetans must not repeat Nehru’s mistake and take steps to defend Buddha Dharma by any means because if we don’t we will be annihilated as a people and as a nation. No one should doubt the nefarious agenda of the despicable CCP monster.