China uses religious propaganda to counter Tibetan self-immolations

In a rare departure from its usual propaganda narrative on Tibetan self-immolations, the Chinese authorities called His Holiness the Dalai Lama, along with His Eminence Kirti Rinpoche “the root cause” of self-immolations in Tibet. In earlier statements, the Chinese leadership had been careful to directly blame Dalai Lama, instead blaming the so-called ‘Dalai clique’ or ‘separatist forces’ for self-immolations.

On 7 March 2013, Chinese state media quoted Wu Zegang, governor of Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province as saying, “We oppose the self-immolation … first of all, [we should find out] the root cause of the [self-immolation] problem, the root cause is the 14^th Dalai Lama, and Kirti Rinpoche, who live outside [Tibet].”[i] But the fact that there had been no credible evidence to prove this reckless claim is beside the point for the Chinese authorities whose fanatical drive to stamp out popular Tibetan protests and criminalize the so-called instigators, inciters and abettors of immolations have only increased repression, instability and violence in Tibet.

The first wave of self-immolation protests witnessed in Ngaba Prefecture (Sichuan province) was the precursor to the continuing self-immolations in other parts of Tibet. Out of confirmed 109 self-immolations in Tibet, 39 took place in Ngaba Prefecture. The official Chinese diatribe against Kirti Rinpoche coincided with a successful overseas tour of Kirti Rinpoche, during which he spoke of repression and violence in Tibet.[ii] Last year, Ngaba authorities organized firefighting lessons in Tibetan monasteries, political education campaigns and implemented widespread, systematic crackdown on self-immolation protests. Communication lines and channels remained under effective lockdown making it difficult to obtain fuller information about the situation in Ngaba. The Ngaba region continues to remain under effective lockdown.

Chinese authorities are well aware of deep resentment and grievances among Tibetans over Chinese misrule, although it has not been explicitly clear for fear of inadvertently exposing the regime’s massive policy fiasco that had now resulted in the current crisis in Tibet. But its actions in recent months have sought to highlight the fear and mistrust with which Chinese government controls Tibet, particularly the monastic institutions.

 Political education campaign in Nagchu, TAR

 In the middle of January this year, Chinese authorities in the Tibetan capital Lhasa summoned a group of senior Tibetan monks from the three great monastic universities of Sera, Drepung, Gaden, as well as Jokhang Temple, on the pretext of a meeting. For weeks, their whereabouts remained unknown until news emerged that they were giving ‘patriotic education’ campaigns in villages and monasteries in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), as part of the ‘Anti-immolation Special Struggle’, a new government campaign against self-immolations.

The monks including geshes, abbots, chant masters and teachers were reportedly staying at Bekar Monastery in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu Prefecture. Following the revelation by exile Tibetan sources about the sudden ‘disappearance’ of high-ranking monks in Lhasa, official Chinese media reported on 7 March 2013 that a group of 30 senior monks from Sera, Drepung, Gaden, Tsuglakhang, Ramoche, Tsurphu Monastery and Drikung Thil Monastery gave ‘religious teachings’ including lessons on ‘suicide-related sins’ in Buddhism from 14 to 31 January in villages and monasteries in Nagchu particularly Diru County.[iii]  The political education sessions given in the guise of Buddhist teachings were led and organized by TAR Branch of Buddhist Association of China (BAC), a party body that monitors and manages Tibetan Buddhism in TAR.

Padma Choling and the amnesia of TAR immolations

Last year, TCHRD confirmed at least four known Tibetan self-immolations from Diru (Ch: Biru) County in TAR. On 29 September 2012, Yungdrung, 27, from Chamdo (Ch: Changdu) County self-immolated at Dzatoe town in Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Gudrup, a Tibetan writer and poet, was the first Tibetan from Diru County to self-immolate. On 25 October 2012, two self-immolation protests were reported from Diru County, by Tsepo, 20, and Tenzin, 25, from Nagro Phampa Village. On 7 November 2012, Tsegyal, 27, set himself on fire in Bankar village in Diru County and died after 11 days in police custody on 18 November. Sources told TCHRD that he received inadequate medical treatment for his burns.

On 7 July 2012, over two months after the first self-immolations in Lhasa (TAR), Tsewang Dorje, 22, self-immolated at the main market of Damshung County near Lhasa.

In May 2012, following the first joint self-immolation protests staged by Dorje Tsetan and Dhargye in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, hundreds of Tibetans were arbitrarily detained. Jokhang Temple, in front of which the immolations took place, was sealed off indefinitely. The temple is now under heavy surveillance, with separate security checkpoints for Tibetans, according to information received by TCHRD from foreign tourists of Chinese origin. Tibetans are singled out for searches especially those visiting from Amdo and Kham provinces located outside TAR. A special police station at Lhasa Railway station ensures Tibetans from Kham and Amdo provinces do not visit Lhasa without official documents thus severely restricting their freedom of movement. Moreover, Tibetans wishing to travel for religious, educational, business and cultural purposes are facing enormous hurdles in visiting and living in Lhasa.

The first Tibetan to protest by self-burning in TAR was Tenzin Phuntsok, 46, a former monk of Karma Monastery in Chamdo Prefecture. He shouted slogans for religious freedom and distributed leaflets before setting himself afire on 1 December 2011. He died on 6 December in a government hospital. He was born in Jingdhung Village in Chamdo County. He also became the first Tibetan to self-immolate after the first wave of self-immolation in Sichuan Province spearheaded by monks in Ngaba.

Given the unresolved tension in Nagchu and the intrusive surveillance and security build-up in Lhasa, it is suspiciously surprising that Padma Choling, the chairman of the standing committee of TAR People’s Congress, deputy secretary of TAR Communist Party of China (CPC), and the only Tibetan in the elite 205-member Central Committee of CPC, denied any self-immolations occurred in TAR. Quoted by official media on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress meeting, he said no local residents, monks or nuns in TAR had self-immolated in TAR.[iv]

Forked approach to Tibetan Buddhism

The two-tongued approach of Chinese government in managing and controlling Tibetan Buddhism has served to exacerbate an already volatile situation, let alone create an atmosphere of stability and harmony touted by the Chinese leadership. On the one hand, Chinese authorities make repeated attempts to demonise and discredit the globally-revered and respected Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. But on the other, they exhort and mobilise religious personalities and official religious bodies to implement political education campaigns including and increasingly now the Chinese government’s ‘special struggle’ against self-immolation. Aware of the moral legitimacy wielded by many Tibetan lamas among the local populace, and aware also that in the eyes of many Tibetans, the Chinese government lacks legitimacy, religious personalities such as geshes, abbots and reincarnated lamas are forcibly taken to remote rural Tibetan areas to run political education sessions, particularly in monastic institutions. It seems only the Chinese government knows how it is going to reconcile the polar opposites of discrediting Tibetan spiritual leaders and using religion to further its political objectives in Tibet. Plain eyes could see with little effort China’s shortsighted and unsustainable ways of dealing with the Tibet crisis.

As far as self-immolation crackdown is concerned, Buddhist lessons seem to have struck a peculiar chord among avowed atheists like the deputy chairman of Sichuan People’s Congress Zhang Dongsheng and TAR governor Lobsang Gyaltsen. In recent weeks, Chinese leaders have evoked Buddhist teachings on suicide as sin to condemn self-immolations. Responding to media questions, Zhang said, “Self-immolation is not advocated, nor in fact permitted, according to Buddhist teaching,” before adding, “Self-immolation is a sin.”[v] On 8 March 2013, Lobsang Gyaltsen, the recently-appointed governor of TAR was quoted as saying, “self-immolation is immoral, inhuman behavior,” and “instigated by the Dalai clique.”  The dyed-in-the-wool Party apparatchik said stability maintenance is the “first responsible and hard task,” and called for “resolute struggle against the Dalai clique, infiltration of sabotage activities and resolutely crack down on various secessionist forces, and resolutely safeguard social stability in Tibet.”[vi]

The theme of ‘cherishing life’ and condemning immolations is part of government attempts to bring in Buddhist logic using Buddhist personalities to tackle the self-immolators and their so-called instigators.

On 6 March 2013, in Qinghai Province, Party and government officials from Provincial Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC) and United Front Work Department organized a ‘religious debate’ meeting in the provincial capital of Siling (Ch: Xining) where over 30 Tibetan abbots, reincarnated lamas and other religious workers representing various monasteries in the province read out speeches on the need to “combat self-immolations, cherish life and protect stability”.[vii]  At the meeting, a letter issued by Qinghai Province branch of Buddhist Association in China (BAC) called for the establishment of BAC branches in all areas of the province and these BAC branches are expected to carry out anti-immolation campaign of ‘cherishing life’ and opposing self-immolations.

In a familiar attempt to discredit and delegitimize self-immolation protests, Zhang Dongsheng, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of (Sichuan) Provincial People’s Congress said, “Self-immolation incidents are not an ethnic problem, nor a religious issue but a political and criminal issue, and we should resolutely strike down hard on those inciting self-immolations.”[viii] He was speaking on the sidelines of the annual session of NPC in Beijing.

‘Striking hard’ on immolation-related ‘crimes’

‘Striking hard’ on immolation-related ‘crimes’ had begun long before local governments in self-immolation-affected areas began issuing notices to criminalize self-immolations last year. The notices announced rewards for cooperation and punishments for opposition to the “anti-immolation special struggle” campaign.[ix] For instance, in June 2012, a prominent senior monk, Yonten Gyatso, was sentenced to seven years for sending out photographs and information about the self-immolation of nun Tenzin Wangmo.  He was a popular social activist and educator as well as the chief disciplinarian, chant master (Tibetan: Umze) and former member and director of the Monastery Management Committee at Khashi Gyephel Samtenling Monastery in Ngaba County.

Back in August 2011, in a controversial verdict by the Barkham (Ch: Ma’erkang) Intermediate People’s Court in Ngaba Prefecture, three Tibetan monks were charged with “intentional homicide” and received prison terms ranging from 10 to 13 years.[x] The monks were accused of assisting the self-immolation of Phuntsok Jarutsang, 19, who set himself on fire on 16 March 2011 and died the next day. At the time, there was no publicly issued guidance from central authorities to pass these heavy sentences, such as the ordinance issued by Central government authorities in December 2012[xi] which is clearly the source of a sudden spike in self-immolation related detention, arrest and imprisonment.

There is now a long and growing list of “crimes” related to self-immolation: holding prayer ceremonies and funeral rites for Tibetans who had died of self-immolation; visiting families and relatives of self-immolators to offer condolences and donations; holding peaceful processions in memory of self-immolators; carrying photographs of Dalai Lama and self-immolators in public or on personal phones; sending information and photographs of human rights violations and self-immolation protests to outsiders; and so on and so forth. Clearly in such cases, religious rights and liberties are denied to Tibetans in the name of ‘national security crimes’. Chinese authorities have maintained that all acts related to self-immolation, in one way or the other, show an intent or motive to ‘split’ the Chinese state and cause instability using the support of ‘hostile foreign forces’.

Arbitrary use of Criminal Law provisions

Many Tibetans detained over self-immolations had been charged with “intentional homicide” under Chinese Criminal Law. Yet there is no basis in Chinese law for prosecuting someone for self-immolation. No such known legal precedent exists in China for punishing someone for perceived connections to self-immolation protests, despite the fact that there had been 41 cases of Chinese self-immolations against forced evictions in China from 2009 to 2011.[xii] At least the Criminal Law does not mention ‘self-immolation’. Even the charges of ‘incitement’ or ‘abetment’ have not been proved with legitimate evidences owing to the incommunicado nature of detentions, interrogations and arrests followed by controversial trials and sentences.

In Chinese law, there is no basis for prosecuting someone for holding prayers and offering condolences. These acts are arbitrarily (and therefore, extrajudicial) charged under ‘national security’ crimes such as ‘endangering state security’ and ‘state secrets’ law, two vague and overbroad laws that justify official misuse of power to further political objectives.

Even before the issuance of the central ordinance in December 2012, the law enforcement agencies in conjunction with local governments and Party authorities had implemented severe punitive measures against self-immolations with administrative permission from the local government. In October 2012, police in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Prefecture in Gansu province issued a notice asking local residents to provide information about self-immolations in return for cash rewards of 50,000 yuan (U.S. $7,913). In November 2012, Malho (Ch: Gannan) Prefectural government announced collective punishment for individual acts of self-immolation protests. Authorities in Malho Prefecture said government aid to families of self-immolators as well as development projects in villages where Tibetans had carried out protest self-immolations would be cancelled in the next three years.

The truth is the ordinance issued by the central authorities in Beijing to criminalise self-immolation related acts was announced publicly for the first time in December 2012 in an editorial in the official Gannan Daily. The ordinance only codified, albeit arbitrarily, a practice that was already in use. Even before the ordinance was issued, Chinese law enforcement agencies had carried out arbitrary crackdowns using local administrative measures. Ngawang Topden, 20, aTibetan artist was sentenced to two years in a reeducation-through-labor (Ch: Laojiao) facility for carrying photos on his mobile phone, photos of two of his friends who self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule.[xiii] It took four months for his family and relatives to know that he was first detained in October 2012 in Lhasa and then sentenced for “subversion”.

‘Anti-immolation special struggle’ launched

According to local authorities in Malho Prefecture, crackdown on self-immolation will continue until 15 April 2013. This was announced in December 2012 at a ‘mobilisation’ meeting where the ‘anti-immolation special struggle’ was formally launched in the region.[xiv] The ‘anti-immolation special struggle’ includes propaganda programs on ‘guiding ideology’ or political education under the guise of ‘legal education’, ‘providing proper guidance to the local populace on establishing a correct concept of right and wrong’ and anti-secessionist activities to protect ‘China’s core national interests’, and are being implemented in schools, monasteries, and farming and nomadic communities.

On 7 February 2013, Chinese state media reported the arrest of 70 “criminal suspects captured” by police in Malho Prefecture in Qinghai Province, in connection with a string of self-immolations that occurred since November 2012. Quoting Lyu Benqian, deputy chief of Qinghai Provincial Public Security Department, the report said 12 of the 70 suspects were officially arrested, meaning they will be sentenced soon. Lyu indicated that many arrests were related to sharing information with outsiders. He said, “personal information of self-immolators, such as photos were sent overseas to promote the self-immolations.”[xv]

Qinghai party secretary bans “illegal” activity related to immolations

On an inspection tour on 1 March 2013 in Chafu Tibetan Ethnic Township, the Qinghai provincial party secretary, Qiang Wei, visited village households, grassroots cadres, masses, school teachers and students, police officers implementing the special struggle against self-immolation and lectured them on creating a “good social environment in the maintenance of stability”.[xvi]  Chafu Township is located in Bayan Khar (Ch: Hualong Hui) County in Tsoshar (Ch: Haidong) Prefecture in Qinghai Province.

Also chairman of the Provincial People’s Congress, Qiang Wei called for a ban on events or rituals related to self-immolation such as offering of condolences and donations, or organizing prayers, funeral rites, and “other illegal activities”. At the Township school, he called on students and teachers to educate and guide the students on “strengthening national unity to establish a sense of national unity and law-abiding citizens.”

Qiang Wei’s inspection tour was not accidental. It came after four days of Phagmo Dhondup’s self-immolation protest at Jhakyung Monastery in Bayan Khar Village in Tsoshar Prefecture. Phagmo Dhondup, a Tibetan farmer in his early 20s, set himself alight on 24 February 2013 and died the next day in a government hospital in Siling (Ch: Xining) city. It was the first immolation reported from Chafu Township.

During the inspection tour, Qiang Wei also visited Jhakyung Monastery where he exhorted the monks to “promote patriotism, strengthen temple management and [hold] legal education, in line with the work of the Party and the government, and to maintain social harmony and stability.”  He also greeted police officers on duty and encouraged them to make “greater contribution in maintaining social stability.”

Special anti-immolation team appointed in Kanlho

On 7 March 2013, the official Gansu Daily reported the appointment of a 26-member anti-immolation team to carry out anti-self immolation campaign in 26 administrative villages and other 95 villages in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Prefecture, Gansu Province.[xvii] Patriotism, gratitude for the Party, cherishing life, opposing immolations, etc., are some of the curriculum in the campaign.  The campaign would be carried out in farming and nomadic communities, schools, monasteries in Kanlho Prefecture. The objectives of the campaign are, according to the report, to make the masses learn and believe that “Tibet is an inalienable part of China”, to “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China and protect social stability and economic development”.

On 28 February 2013, a Chinese court sentenced three Tibetans from 10 to 15 years in prison on “intentional homicide” charges allegedly linked to the 29 November self-immolation of Tsering Namgyal in Luchu (Ch: Luqu) County in Kanlho Prefecture. The three were among six other Tibetans detained in connection the self-immolation. Lhamo Dorje was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, followed by a deprivation of political rights for three years, and Kalsang Sonam received an 11-year term followed by three years’ deprivation of political rights, while Tsesung Kyap received a 10-year term with political rights deprived for a year. The fate of six others – Kalsang Samdrub, Kalsang Kyap, Dorjee Dhondup, Kalsang Namdren, Sonam Kyi, and Nyima – is unknown.

To console is to incite

Interestingly, on 8 February 2013, Chinese authorities sentenced Gyadehor, 60, a Tibetan nomad to four years in prison for “inciting secession”. Chinese authorities said Gyadehor offered condolences and donations to families affected by self-immolation, thereby ‘spreading secessionist opinions’.[xviii] More curiously, on the same day, another Tibetan, Phagpa, 27, was charged of “intentional homicide” for “encouraging a monk to self-immolate”. The monk did not self-immolate after a female cousin dissuaded him, according to Chinese state media, but Phagpa was sentenced to 13 years.

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