Tag: larung gar

Chinese authorities have announced the appointment of Chinese Communist Party members to key positions at Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Institute to exercise direct control over the management and day to day operations of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist institute in Larung valley in Tibet’s Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The move follows…

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A suicide note left by a Tibetan nun last year following the demolition of her shelter by Chinese authorities at Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Institute has finally become public. The nun named Tsering Dolma hanged herself on 19 July 2016 at her quarter located in the Pema Khando Nuns’ Residence, the nuns’ district in Larung Gar. As reported earlier by…

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Larung Gar Buddhist Institute
Larung Gar Buddhist Institute

The ongoing demolition of monastic dwellings and eviction of monks and nuns at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, one of the leading centres for Buddhist scholarship and practice in Tibet, demonstrate that religious freedom remains a distant reality for religious believers in Tibet.

Since 20 July, Chinese government-employed demolition squads have torn down more than half of the targeted 1000 monastic residences at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The target will be achieved by the end of this year. The demolition order issued early this year also requires the eviction of thousands of monks and nuns from the institute. The ceiling requirement of 5000 monastics – 2000 monks and 3000 nuns – has necessitated the eviction of the rest of the residents. The total number of monastics, apart from lay and foreign practitioners, at the institute hovered around 10,000 before the demolition began.

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A view of Larung Gar
A view of Larung Gar

Chinese authorities have announced the destruction of thousands of monastic dwellings and expulsion of monks, nuns and lay practitioners at Serthar Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, the famed Tibetan Buddhist religious encampment located in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in eastern Tibet.

An eight-point document issued by the Chinese authorities spells out the step-by-step guide to demolishing housing facilities of thousands of monks, nuns and lay practitioners and their expulsion, so as to reduce the number of residents to government-set ceiling of 5000. Citing the decisions taken at the Sixth Tibet Work Forum Conference and the Second National Work Conference on Religion, the document stated that the demolition order was aimed at proper regulation and management of Larung Gar Buddhist institute. Mainly prefecture-level departments under the direction of mostly Han Chinese officials would carry out the demolition order.

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Ngagchung of Larung Gar Buddhist Institute of Sertha
Ngagchung of Larung Gar Buddhist Institute of Sertha

A Tibetan monk was released recently after completing a six-year sentence for sharing information about human rights abuses perpetrated by Chinese security forces during the height of 2008 Tibetan uprising in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County, Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, according to information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

Ngagchung, who was a monk at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute prior to his imprisonment, was released on 8 July 2014 after the completion of his 6-year sentence. He is said to be in poor health and suffers from damaged vision.

No other details are available on the current status and condition of Ngagchung as local authorities in Serthar County have blocked all communication lines including phone and Internet.

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Ngagchung of Larung Gar Buddhist Institute of Sertha
Ngagchung of Larung Gar Buddhist Institute of Sertha

A Chinese Intermediate People’s court in Sichuan Province has sentenced a Tibetan monk, who remained incommunicado since his arrest in July 2008, to seven years in prison and deprivation of political rights for a year, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

The Kardze Intermediate People’s Court in Sichuan Province had sentenced Ngagchung (only one name), 39-year-old monk of Larung Gar Buddhist Institute of Serthar, Sertha County, Kardze “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture” (‘TAP’) to seven years in prison and deprivation of political rights for a year in January this year. There is no information on the exact date of the court trial, under what charges he was convicted or whether he was given any legal rights guarantee under the Chinese constitution and international laws.

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Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok
Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok

TCHRD received confirmed information that Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, the Founder Abbot of Serthar Buddhist Institute died in the evening of 6 January 2004 in a hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Khenpo was 72 years old. It is reported that he died in the military hospital “363” where he was earlier receiving medical treatment.

As per earlier information received by TCHRD, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was to undergo heart surgery at the same hospital at 10 AM (China time) on 29 December 2003.

It has also been reported that Chinese “work team” officials, stationed at the Institute since 2000, left the Institute in the morning of 7 January 2004.

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The Tibetan Centre of Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) today screened for the first time a 10-minute documentary showing the massive destruction of Serthar Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Sichuan Province in Tibet. The documentary was made from film footage smuggled out from Tibet by ex-residents of the Institute.

Serthar Institute, also known as Larung Gar, is located in Karze “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture”, Sichuan Province. Until last year it was Tibet’s largest Buddhist Institute. Serthar’s non-sectarian academic teachings by Khenpo (abbot) Jigme Phuntsok attracted Buddhist scholars from all around the world, including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea. It was also home to a large number of Tibetan monks, nuns and lay-people. Total population before the current crackdown was well over 8,000.

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