Beijing orders Tibetan detentions after India pilgrimage

[Namdrol]

This is bad, so much obstacles in attending Kalachakra initiation. It was supposed to be a happy occasion that nowadays Tibetans in Tibet have the opportunity to travel out of Tibet to see the Dalai Lama and attend his teaching, AND RETURN TO TIBET AGAIN. It is a freedom that was unimaginable just a few years ago, but now it smells trouble again. It really takes a lot of merits to be able to stay near a qualified guru and attend the Dharma teachings with freedom, don't take it for granted.



Beijing orders Tibetan detentions after India pilgrimage

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=46,10828,0,0,1,0

by Edward Wong, Sydney Morning Herald, April 9, 2012

Beijing, China -- HUNDREDS of Tibetans who attended an important Buddhist ceremony earlier this year in India have been detained without charge by Chinese security officers on their return to Tibet.

According to family members and human rights groups, this is the first time that Chinese authorities have detained large numbers of Tibetan pilgrims returning from the January ceremony, held every year in northern India.

Many of the pilgrims are elderly and have been detained for more than two months in central Tibet, or what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region. The detainees are being interrogated and undergoing patriotic re-education classes, and have been ordered to denounce the Dalai Lama, who presided over the ceremony, known as the Kalachakra, say people who have researched the detentions.


The detainees are being held at hotels, schools and military training centres or bases; some are being forced to pay for their lodging and meals.

The detentions are expected to stoke resentment among Tibetans towards the Chinese government at a time when tensions across the Tibetan plateau are at the highest in years.

The pilgrims were detained at checkpoints while returning overland via Nepal or while flying into Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Some have been released, and many who were held in central Tibet but are registered as residents in other regions have been sent to those areas, according to researchers, who interviewed released detainees and their friends and relatives.

The Kalachakra ceremony, an important teaching ritual in Tibetan Buddhism, takes place every winter in Bodh Gaya, the site in the Indian state of Bihar where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.

The Dalai Lama travels there from his home in the Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala to give teachings, and Tibetans and other Buddhists from around the world attend.

Human Rights Watch said it was unclear how long the detainees were being held, and that there had been no reports of any of the 700 Han who attended the Kalachakra being detained. The Han are the dominant ethnic group in China,

Calls to Chinese authorities in Beijing went unanswered.

[WisdomBeing]

This is so strange. Why would China allow its citizens (Tibetan or otherwise) to go to India to attend a teaching by His Holiness and then penalize them when they get back to China?? Unless China is training its people to NOT go even when “allowed”. After this incident, those who went to the Kalachakra teachings will probably NOT go again even if they were allowed. Although, it would be a great stance for their faith in the Dalai Lama if they still went and returned to face the consequences. Interesting.

[Ensapa]

Who else is to blame for this other than the CTA? Whatever the CTA does has been proven to be counterproductive to the Dharma and is damaging to everyone, including their own citizens that they are supposed to represent and protect. So why is the CTA being so heartless and cruel and only championing their own agendas at the expense of the people?

If a government is supposed to represent and take care of the people, then why is CTA not doing so? As a result of the encouraging the immolations, more and more people started immolating themselves and obviously China would not allow people who have potential contact with the CTA to return to encourage even more discord and immolations. That is what any government would do in lieu of what happened.

So who is truly to blame in this situation? It is none other than the CTA themselves for doing something so stupid and selfish, to promote more people to champion their own agenda at the expense of the citizens in Tibet. They do not seem to care at all about what will happen to the Tibetans within Tibet who would be punished for such defiance, they just care about their free publicity machine and they'll just keep fuelling that.

I wish that the CTA would actually just for once care about the plight of their citizens and do something very practical like advising them to get out of trouble and be smart about the whole situation. Whatever they are doing shows that they only care about their political agenda and not the needs of the people. Which government actually does that and be successful?

Time to wake up, CTA before you destroy Buddhism even further.

[dsiluvu]

Wonder what could have caused this to trigger?
Perhaps it could be the self-immolate that has been going on lately that gives the creates displease in the Chinese govt. They are probably afraid (after the many that visited HHDL) another riot or more self-immolations to arise from the Tibetans which is obviously a very hot news right now.

From Guardian UK:
"A momentum is generated leading to the spread of that particular form of behaviour, encouraged by the support of peers, elders and others. The local reaction to each death, rather than the international reaction, either encourages or discourages others.

Endorsement and example flows through social networks. For the moment, the self-immolators are seen as tragic but admirable martyrs worthy of the pride of their friends and family. There are likely to be many more of them."

The Chinese Govt sure does not enjoy these type of news, it discredits them and they would use strict measures to stop/control it if need be as this has always been their style. Yes we are fortunate to be in a situation that allows us total freedom in our faith.

[Ensapa]

Wonder what could have caused this to trigger?
Perhaps it could be the self-immolate that has been going on lately that gives the creates displease in the Chinese govt. They are probably afraid (after the many that visited HHDL) another riot or more self-immolations to arise from the Tibetans which is obviously a very hot news right now.

From Guardian UK:
"A momentum is generated leading to the spread of that particular form of behaviour, encouraged by the support of peers, elders and others. The local reaction to each death, rather than the international reaction, either encourages or discourages others.

Endorsement and example flows through social networks. For the moment, the self-immolators are seen as tragic but admirable martyrs worthy of the pride of their friends and family. There are likely to be many more of them."

The Chinese Govt sure does not enjoy these type of news, it discredits them and they would use strict measures to stop/control it if need be as this has always been their style. Yes we are fortunate to be in a situation that allows us total freedom in our faith.

For the rest of the world, it is rather fortunate for us as we are more educated and more exposed compared to both the people in CTA and in Tibet and can see the dangers and fallacies of going head on with a superpower, and think of better ways to handle the situation rather than doing something that causes more harm and damage to people around.

The whole thing could have been avoided, really, if only the tibetans did not immolate themselves. China was already opening up to Tibetan Buddhism, just not to the Dalai Lama due to his association as the political leader of Tibet. Of course as things were finally getting better after over 50 years, some people decide that it would be more glorious and fun to make a statement rather than doing their own Dharma practice.

The other thing is, what would China's Panchen lama do? How would he handle the situation and assume the Dalai Lama's role in leading Tibet spiritually, or is the Chinese government preventing that? On Panchen Lama and Dorje Shugden, he is a well known DS practitioner but it seems that China has "spirited" him away, when it was during the time when HHDL heightened the ban. Perhaps the true Panchen is trying send a statement to HHDL?

If the current Panchen assumed spiritual leadership of the people in Tibet and controlled the situation, displacing the Dalai Lama, there would be more stability in the region, but that would also mean that any chance of HHDL returning to lead would be close to 0 as Tibet does not need 2 leaders. Lets hope CTA does not push China to do this.

[DharmaDefender]

This is so strange. Why would China allow its citizens (Tibetan or otherwise) to go to India to attend a teaching by His Holiness and then penalize them when they get back to China?? Unless China is training its people to NOT go even when “allowed”. After this incident, those who went to the Kalachakra teachings will probably NOT go again even if they were allowed. Although, it would be a great stance for their faith in the Dalai Lama if they still went and returned to face the consequences. Interesting.

Makes perfect sense to me.

1) disallowing Tibetans back into Tibet reduces the number of Tibetans living in Tibet, thereby giving them that many fewer reasons to cause unrest

2) what were those Tibetans thinking? If the Dalai Lama is banned in Tibet, what made them believe theyd be let back in freely after leaving to see the Dalai Lama?

3) just goes to show you living conditions in Tibet cant be ALL bad if the Tibetans left freely and on their own will, and were willing to go BACK there

[dondrup]

Many countries in the World immediately tightened and increased their security measures to fight terrorism in the aftermath of 911.  If we look at the unrest caused by the recent spate of self-immolations by the Tibetans, it is not surprising for the Chinese authorities to enforce such security measures. Perhaps China is too cautious and gone a bit too far to detain these pilgrims.  It is possible also that the Chinese Government is concerned that these pilgrims could be brainwashed at Dharamsala and then return to Tibet to start a revolution for Tibet!

[Klein]

Many countries in the World immediately tightened and increased their security measures to fight terrorism in the aftermath of 911.  If we look at the unrest caused by the recent spate of self-immolations by the Tibetans, it is not surprising for the Chinese authorities to enforce such security measures. Perhaps China is too cautious and gone a bit too far to detain these pilgrims.  It is possible also that the Chinese Government is concerned that these pilgrims could be brainwashed at Dharamsala and then return to Tibet to start a revolution for Tibet!

I agree with you Dondrup. It's a normal reaction for Governments to increase their security measures after some social unrest. In this case it was the self-immolations. I don't believe this has anything to do with their religious practice. It's more for security reasons.

On a spiritual aspect, it shows how much obstacles the Tibetans have to attend their Guru's Kalachakra ceremony. I wonder what karma they've created for themselves.

For those of us who have the karma to have our Guru near us, we should cherish this opportunity and never take for granted.

[vajratruth]

The real shame is for Buddhism to be associated with violence and rebellion. In this situation, everyone loses. The more people self immolate for the Tibetan cause, the more harsh the Chinese government is going to be towards Buddhism. This is not a good result.

Personally I feel it is unfortunate that some of the Tibetans who went as far as self immolation in protest were monks. There is nothing in Buddhism that calls for suicide and violent deaths. I understand the Buddha's teachings to be about tolerance and acceptance of change. It cannot be easy for the Tibetan and members of the Sangha to be oppressed but their actions so far has yielded a negative result for the practice of Buddhism.

The question of Tibet being governed by a Tibetan government is purely a matter of politics and not Buddhism. Whatever the CTA is doing to try to return Tibet  to their own rule is not only failing miserably but back-firing.

[VS]

Many countries in the World immediately tightened and increased their security measures to fight terrorism in the aftermath of 911.  If we look at the unrest caused by the recent spate of self-immolations by the Tibetans, it is not surprising for the Chinese authorities to enforce such security measures. Perhaps China is too cautious and gone a bit too far to detain these pilgrims.  It is possible also that the Chinese Government is concerned that these pilgrims could be brainwashed at Dharamsala and then return to Tibet to start a revolution for Tibet!

I agree with you Dondrup. It's a normal reaction for Governments to increase their security measures after some social unrest. In this case it was the self-immolations. I don't believe this has anything to do with their religious practice. It's more for security reasons.

On a spiritual aspect, it shows how much obstacles the Tibetans have to attend their Guru's Kalachakra ceremony. I wonder what karma they've created for themselves.

For those of us who have the karma to have our Guru near us, we should cherish this opportunity and never take for granted.

I do agree that the stepping up on security measures are the first step that any country will take when they 'feel' that their political stability is being threatened. The Chinese might be afraid that more Tibetans will take on the streets and self immolate and causes more social unrest. This act could result to economy instability.

Unfortunately, this is not bringing any benefit for the spread of dharma as many might be turned away in view of the 'violence involved'.

If only Tibetans are allowed to practice buddhism and their religion freely, there would be more positive news than sad self immolation cases....

[Benny]

If a government is supposed to represent and take care of the people, then why is CTA not doing so? As a result of the encouraging the immolations, more and more people started immolating themselves and obviously China would not allow people who have potential contact with the CTA to return to encourage even more discord and immolations. That is what any government would do in lieu of what happened: quote by Ensapa.

I totally agree with what Ensapa said above. Which government would not act as what the Chinese did, in light of all the recent self immolation. They probably have succeeded in saving a few lifes by arresting them. Who can be sure that some in the group was not "brainwashed" or "inspired" to be the next batch of martyrs. We can safely point the finger at the CTA as they have been openly praising and motivating those self destructive acts of immolations in official press releases.

What is so suprising for a politically motivated government to use expandable pawns ? It is free publicity anyways . They don't even need to give them bombs! It is probably because they can't afford it , I guess. But I dread the idea that if they had the resources or sponsors ! Like the Terrorist group the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. They were well funded by Tamils all over the world. Thousands were killed and yet they won no independence from Sri Lanka

Violence in whatsoever form be it self inflicted or otherwise is not the solution. Even the Chinese today are much more civilised , why do I say that ? Just by the fact that they allow all these HHDL followers to attend the event says alot. It is not that they allow then regret the decision . It is most likely that the Chinese intelligence agency received some information that some of those within the group are a threat to their national security !

As with most civilised governments the civil liberties or their citizens are all protected to the extent that it does not infringe the rights of others or endanger the state. Clearly , that is what happened here , I don't blame the Chinese government at all in this case. Look at it this way, how come we don't see the Chinese arrest Buddhist, Chinese or Tibetans Dorje SHugden practioners ? They even support DS monasteries and welcome high lamas like Gangchen Rinpoche with police escorts n motorcade to protect him.

Yes , to probably protect these DS lamas from self immolators ! Pun intended.

[Ensapa]

Well, China is aware that CTA is spreading information to the people within Tibet and they are not happy with that. They know that the self immolations are influenced by the CTA. China is a huge nation and they are not stupid and they know exactly what is going on. they would not simply just detain people for fun. I really hope that the self immolations will end so that the Tibetans can really work with China to free tibet.