Dharamshala, 28th August: According to Phayul, Last week, Chinese officials in the Dza Wonpo district arrested over 60 Tibetans who were allegedly found with portraits of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as part of a stepped-up campaign against the possession of illegal images of revered spiritual figures. According to Radio Free Asia, authorities in Kardze, in eastern Tibet’s so-called Sichuan Province, detained 19 monks from the local monastery and 40 local civilians after searching their residences carefully.
The authorities transported them to the Sershul county police station and then scheduled a meeting for people over the age of 18 on Wednesday, warning them that if they did not attend, they would face penalties. “The meeting’s main purpose was to warn individuals not to keep any photos of the Dalai Lama or to transmit any information through their cellphones,” the source said on the condition of anonymity.
On the same day, another raid in the town was reported for the specific intention of discovering banned images. These dramatic searches were preceded by earlier meetings in Dza Wonpo, where Tibetans were forced to sign a contract promising not to keep or circulate images of the Dalai Lama.
Authorities in the region also examined a nearby old-age residential facility under the guise of a cleanliness drive, confiscating banned photographs and replacing them with pictures of President Xi Jinping and other leaders, according to the source.
Since 2008, the Dza Wonpo Township has become a hotbed of resistance. Tamey, a teen monk from the local monastery, died of injuries acquired in a Chinese prison in January of this year. Tenzin Nyima, commonly known as Tamey, staged a peaceful protest outside the local police station in November 2019 demanding Tibet’s independence.
Moreover, China is replacing Tibetan-language schooling with education almost entirely in Chinese and coercing parents to send their children to faraway residential schools in a renewed effort to eliminate the Tibetan identity. Rinchen Kyi, a Tibetan teacher was arrested and charged with separatism after her school was forcibly closed. Sherab Dorje(19) from Ngaba(Eastern Tibet) was arrested in August 2021 for his failure to attend a Chinese propaganda lecture. These sessions are designed to ensure Tibetans do not oppose China’s policies in Tibet.
Source: Phayul.com