An analysis of the brutal repression of religion in Tibet and elsewhere, based on the author’s panel speech at the International Religious Freedom Summit Asia in Tokyo on July 22.

by Tsewang Gyalpo Arya

Why is religion important and why do we need it?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan spiritual leader and 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said that all religious teachings contain important messages of love, compassion, forgiveness and non-violence. All the major religions of this world have great potential to create and promote peace and harmony at all levels: individual, family, societal, national and international. To have a peaceful world, we first need peace within ourselves on a personal level. This will have a ripple effect. For this, we need religion and morality to guide us properly to find this peace within ourselves and outside ourselves. It is this important sacred potential of religions that we must maintain and promote for a better and more peaceful world.

In a free and democratic country, this freedom of religion is respected and it complements social and national harmony. But a dictatorial and authoritarian regime that wants to have complete control over the minds and bodies of the people sees religion as a threat to its authority and therefore suppresses it. The very fact that they are against the religious teachings based on love, compassion, forgiveness and non-violence shows the evil and dangerous nature of such a regime.

Tibet’s experiences in the past and present

It has been more than 70 years since China militarily occupied Tibet. Despite their propaganda and claims of emancipation, prosperity, development and a socialist paradise, Tibetans still suffer under the repressive, brutal communist regime. The violation of human rights, religious freedom, oppression and destruction of Tibetan identity that has continued since the early occupation in the 1950s has now reached its peak. Today, the situation in Tibet is described with phrases such as “total information blackout”, “Tibet has become a police state”, “Tibetan plateau militarized” etc. The US-based Freedom House survey has named Tibet as the most oppressed and inaccessible country in several consecutive annual reports.

When China failed to gain legitimacy to rule Tibet even after 70 years of occupation and indoctrination, the communist regime decided to destroy the root of Tibetan identity, that is, Tibetan language, culture and religion.

In the first years of the occupation, over 6,000 monasteries were destroyed and thousands of monks and nuns were forced to remove their robes. But since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the situation has worsened. Today, monasteries, religious statues and artifacts, and schools are being destroyed in broad daylight in front of the public, and information about these atrocities only comes to light after the destruction and despite all efforts to cover it up.

CCP propaganda and misinformation on “separatism”

China claims that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exile administration are separatists and anti-China. However, the truth is different. It is the Chinese Communist leadership that is separatist and anti-China. Many Tibetans and Chinese lived and studied together peacefully and harmoniously in two large monastery complexes, Larung-gar and Yachen-gar, in the Kham region of eastern Tibet. There were also students from South Korea, Taiwan and other countries. However, the Chinese authorities viewed this good relationship between Tibetans and Chinese and others studying Buddhism together as dangerous.

They began destroying the two monasteries in 2001 and sent the Chinese and Tibetan students to their respective locations. Tibetan monks were forbidden to teach Buddhism to Chinese people, and Chinese people were forbidden to receive teachings from Tibetan masters. So who is the real separatist? The real separatist is the CCP regime with its divide and rule policy.

Many protested peacefully. Three nuns, Rinzin Dolma, Tsering Dolma and Semgha, committed suicide in protest against the demolitions and expulsions. Monks and nuns were reportedly arrested and forced to attend indoctrination classes where they were forced to wear Chinese military uniforms, dance and sing songs praising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Encouraged China and broad Suppression in daylight

The silence of the international community has encouraged China to commit these religious atrocities in broad daylight.

In December 2021, China dismantled a 30-meter-high Buddha statue and a 9-meter-high Maitreya statue and destroyed 45 large prayer wheels and a monastery school in the Drago region of Tibet’s Kham province. They dismantled a 14-meter-high statue of Guru Padmasambhava, an Indian saint who introduced Buddhism and was revered as the second Buddha in Tibet, in Nyimo township.

But because of communication restrictions, tight surveillance and the threat of torture, very little news or information gets out. The world thinks Tibet is safe and peaceful because there is no news about Tibet. But the opposite is true.

Pass laws to justify religious oppression

Although the CCP neither believes in nor respects religions, it is aware of the power of religion. In order to gain total control over the people of China and the occupied territories, the CCP tries to make religion its useful tool. When repression, indoctrination and the destruction of monasteries, churches and mosques failed to destroy people’s faith in religion, the CCP leadership issued laws, rules and regulations to control religions and people’s religious understanding.

Last year, China issued Religious Regulation No. 19, Administrative Measures for Places of Religious Activity, to manage places of worship in China and the occupied territories. With this regulation, China tries to justify the CCP’s interference in religious affairs to the people and to stifle criticism from the international community by claiming that they are acting within the law.

Article 3 of the order states: “Places of religious activity should uphold the leadership of the CCP and the socialist system and consistently implement Xi Jinping’s ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era.”

Here, China has openly made it clear that according to this regulation, all religious communities must adopt “Xi Jinping’s ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics” in their religious teachings and practices. This is ridiculous and unacceptable! The communist ideology and Xi Jinping do not respect or believe in religion. Therefore, it is absurd and blasphemous for the CCP leadership to dilute and desecrate religious teachings for their political agenda.

China also announced a law on patriotic education last year. Articles 3 and 6 of the law state: “Patriotic education should uphold the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and continue to be guided by Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping’s Theory, the important ideas of the ‘Three Represents’, the Scientific Outline of Development and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era…”

It is clear from this that the CCP’s patriotic education is nothing more than indoctrination and imposition of the outdated communist ideology on the masses and its compulsory introduction into education and social life. By idolizing Mao and Deng, the law also seeks to erase the dark memories and records of all the deaths and suffering that Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward and Deng’s Tiananmen Square Massacre brought to China.

The forced and repeated use of “Xi Jinping Thought” here and there is aimed at enforcing the veneration and deification of the Chinese president. This is evident from the fact that Tibetans are forced to make offerings and prostrate before images of Xi Jinping.

Control of religious leaders

Because religious leaders are respected and revered, the CCP seeks to assert its authority in selecting and appointing religious leaders and teachers. The China Buddhist Association (CBA), the highest religious body that theoretically preserves the Buddha’s teachings in the country, is tightly controlled by the CCP. Through this body, the CCP seeks to control Buddhists not only in China but around the world.

Arjia Rinpoche, a prominent Tibetan-Mongolian reincarnation lama, when he learned he was to be appointed head of the CBA, “could no longer ignore the conflict between government interests and my own religious vows,” he writes in his book Surviving the Dragon. “Rather than betray my faith, I decided to leave my hometown, my friends, and my beloved monks at Kumbum Monastery. I chose the path of exile.” He fled Tibet in 1998. His book now stands as a testimony to the atrocities the CCP has committed and continues to commit in Tibet since the occupation in 1950.

Buddhism is very popular in China and around the world, and Tibetan reincarnated lamas and teachers are highly revered in the Buddhist world. The CCP, through its Religious Order No. 5, asserted its power to select and control the reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhist masters in 2007. China is now aggressively spreading the false message that it has the historical and political right to select the next Dalai Lama. This is false and completely untrue. The policy behind this is to produce religious leaders who parrot the CCP’s dictates under the guise of reincarnation. The 11th Panchen Lama selected by China is a typical example of this policy.

Of course, the same thing is happening with Christian, Muslim and Taoist communities. The churches, mosques and temples are all controlled by CCP cadres and the official heads of these religions are all selected and groomed to be loyal to the CCP’s version of religion and Xi Jinping’s ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is very dangerous and we cannot allow it to continue like this.