CHINA: Tibetans in Gansu Province to boycott new year in protest against crackdown

Record ID: 1376581

  • Title: CHINA: Tibetans in Gansu Province to boycott new year in protest against crackdown
  • Date: 22nd February 2012
  • Summary: XIAHE COUNTY, GANSU PROVINCE, CHINA (FEBRUARY 21, 2012) (REUTERS) SUN RISING OVER LABRANG MONASTERY MONKS' RESIDENCES IN MONASTERY VARIOUS OF WORSHIPPERS CIRCLING MONASTERY WOMAN PROSTRATING HERSELF WORSHIPPERS WALKING MONKS SEATED IN COURTYARD CHANTING MONKS CHANTING GROUP OF MONKS IN COURTYARD EAVES OF TEMPLE MONK CHANTING MONK WHO ASKED TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS LO
  • Embargoed: 8th March 2012 05:19
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China, China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Politics,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA78ACY0TIHJ5U7SIJVQYNV74XP
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Life in Labrang monastery in northwestern China's Gansu province appeared to be normal on Tuesday (February 21), with monks chanting in groups and local pilgrims making offerings at the complex's many temples.
    China has stepped up security in what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan parts of the country following a series of self-immolations and sporadic protests against Chinese rule, mostly in Sichuan and Gansu provinces.
    For China, the self-immolations are a small, but potentially destabilising, challenge to policies toward minority groups and the region. The government has branded the immolators as "terrorists".
    There have been as many as 24 burnings over the past year, rights groups have said.
    The government has repeatedly accused exiled Tibetans of stoking the protests, including spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising.
    The Dalai Lama has blamed the self-immolations on "cultural genocide" by the Chinese, but has not directly called for them to stop.
    Foreign advocacy groups said China has been stamping out religious freedom and culture in Tibet, a vast, largely mountainous region of western China in the Himalayas, under Chinese control since 1950.
    The groups fear the burnings will continue or accelerate before the traditional Tibetan new year, or Losar, which begins on February 22 amid an increased Chinese security presence in the region.
    The prime minister of the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, has called on Tibetans not to celebrate new year in commemoration of those who have died protesting Chinese rule.
    A Tibetan monk at Labrang, who asked not to be identified to protect his safety, said the government's policies in Tibetan areas had forced people to protest.
    "We have no freedom, no religious freedom, and not even freedom of speech. The pressure is too great, people had no choice, so we protest. But people protest and they open fire, there's nothing else we can do," he said.
    Many Tibetan areas, including Labrang, celebrate their new year on the same day as the Lunar Chinese New Year, which fell at the end of January this year. Usually they would also observe Losar, the Tibetan New Year, but without large ceremonies. However, this year the monk said they were not planning to observe Losar, to show their support for those Tibetans living under the government's tight grip.
    "We aren't having Losar (Tibetan for "new year"). There's too much pressure on the monks and the common people, so we're having no Losar. Losar is our religious event, we shouldn't celebrate it," he said.
    Beijing defended its Tibetan policy, which it says is for the purpose of maintaining social stability in the region.
    "Under the current circumstances, the local governments tightened security measures in the Tibetan areas to counter disruptive and splitist activities and ensure social stability. It is in the interest of people of different ethnicities and consistent with their aspirations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters at a recent news briefing.
    China bans foreign reporters from entering what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region unless they come on tightly-controlled government-organised visits.
    On Tuesday, state television CCTV, which also serves as the Communist Party's mouthpiece, carried recently-filmed footage of Tibetans crowding a market in Lhasa, the provincial capital of Tibet, shopping for decorations for the new year.
    The headline of the news story read in Chinese characters that "with the Tibetan new year approaching, flowers and decorations are selling like hot cakes".
    China has ruled Tibet since 1950, when Communist troops marched in. It rejects criticism that it is eroding Tibetan culture and faith, saying its rule has ended serfdom and brought development to a backward region.
    China stresses that it has helped lift Tibet out of poverty, spending more than 160 billion yuan (25 billion US dollars) and much more in subsidies over the past 60 years, providing the region with double-digit economic growth for 18 straight years.
    But analysts say its approach of boosting economic development while curbing freedoms has backfired, failing to win support in Tibet proper and driving ethnic Tibetans from surrounding provinces closer to the Dalai Lama.
    Riots killed at least 19 people throughout Tibetan parts of China in 2008.
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