The Tibetan Buddhism

The Tibetan Buddhism

The Tibetan Buddhism was the life of Tibet. The Dalai Lamas have traditionally ruled Tibet, and it had an independent theocracy government, language, and unique culture.  However, the Chinese occupation of Tibet has entirely changed the religion and life of Tibetans.  The Chinese government has relentlessly suppressed religious practice in Tibet since 1949. China’s invasion of Tibet brought the significant destruction of Tibetan Buddhism that also led to the destruction of human rights in Tibet. This is shown by the loss of the freedom of religion, violence against Tibetan women, and imprisonment of monks and nuns.

After the Chinese People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet, the military killed over a million Tibetans. In 1966, the Chinese government launched the Cultural Revolution. It was aimed to eliminate the old order and focused on removing the religious activity in Tibet. The government banned most if not all religious activity and destroyed most of the monasteries. Any display of religion was prohibited and punishable by beatings and imprisonment, and All of the religious objects were confiscated and destroyed.

The Chinese government has also revised the regulations governing religious practices to consolidate the far-reaching powers of Communist Party over that of people’s beliefs and lives which also posed a threat to the survival of Tibetan Buddhism .The new regulations on religious activities conflated the existing peaceful religious practices with ‘threats’ to the state security. As a result, both monks and nuns were exposed to a more threatening political environment which isolated them from interacting with their counterparts in other countries.

According to the new regulation provisions, in apparent attempts to use religion as the escape route for the interests of Communist Party, all the religious groups were bound to exercise “core socialist values” The state media announced the ‘Sinicization’ focus of all religious groups which could aid in integrating them to practice Chinese culture. Mainly, the Sinicization aspect targeted mainly the Buddhist community which represented a far-reaching attempt to shape Tibetan Buddhism culture to adhere to Chinese Communist Party with more entrenched and strict framework that has deepened the religious oppression.

The main reason that China banned Tibetan Buddhism is that of its link to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and political leader for the Tibetan people. The Chinese government sees this belief as to oppose the Chinese government and against socialism. Additionally, the Chinese government continues to build hate towards the Dalai Lama because of his opinions that rebuked the oppressive actions of Chinese Communist Party treatment towards the Tibetan people and continuous advocacy towards the independence of Tibet. Chinese Communist officials began to scold him contemptuously and inappropriately. While conducting talks with his agents they could term him of being insultingly, and accused his intent to be a dictator in Tibet.

Tibetans who have images of the Dalai Lama or have traditional prayer stones and flags get severely punished. To continue to repress the religion, the Chinese government exercised the policy of resettlement of Chinese to Tibet to make Tibetans become a minority in their own country. Currently, the Chinese settlers outnumber Tibetans 7 to 1. Many Tibetans who tried to maintain their faith have died. From the law that ban the public gatherings or respect to the Dalai Lama to the settlement of Chinese civilian, the Chinese government tried to change the cultural heritage of Tibet violently and leads the country with no freedom of speech or religion.

The human right conditions for Tibetan women are often far worse than other groups. The Chinese government is trying to continue to reduce the population of Tibet, so the majority ethnic (Han) can remain in power. Tibetan women are forcefully prevented from having children even though the country is exempt from China’s birth-control laws. The government control women by monitoring menstrual cycles forced abortions and sterilization. Tibetan women are particularly vulnerable to sexual torture. The methods of torture include beating pregnant women until they aborted, sexual molestation, and rape.

The forms of torture have been especially cruel against Tibetan nuns. Unfortunately, many nuns often do not report abuse due to the shame and afraid that they will lose the respect in the community. One of the monk’s stories, Ngawang Sangdrol, depicts mistreatments undergone by monks and nuns. At age13, she was imprisoned in Tibet by the Chinese government. Because of her small body size, the torture began right away from the prison guards, who found it easy to lift her up and drop her down on the stone floor of the cell head first. She reports of being beaten with an iron rod, shock buttons placed on her mouth and left standing in a baking heat until she collapsed out of exhaustion.

Nearly all of the monks and nuns were tortured, killed, imprisoned, or exiled by the Chinese government. Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have been at the forefront of protest for their religion. Therefore, these religious monks and nuns are one of the most oppressed group. Usually the monks and nuns were arrested for expression of their political or religious views, and the torture was exercised during their arrest and detention. Those monks and nuns were tortured and imprisioned untill they denounce Buddhism, make confessions, and embrace Communism. The Chineses government continued to deprive the religion and bring humiliation to the country. For example, monks and nuns were forced to have sex in public to degrade their dignity.

Demolishing the major Buddhist learning centers is another approach used by the government to counter the expansion of Tibetan Buddhism. According to a smuggled videotape across the Himalayas by some two Tibetan monks, Chinese communist officials were captured in the process of demolishing a major Buddhist learning center, Serthar, reducing it to rubble. The institution acted as a home for more than 9,000 Buddhism students. . It was a step which has been taken by the government in its attempts to make sure that this religion diminishes completely. The destruction of monasteries was very significant, as these monasteries were the center of education, arts, culture, and religion of Tibetan people. The current monasteries often serve as museums for tourists rather than serving its original cultural and religious purposes. Some monks who are allowed to dwell in the monasteries are like exhibits in the museum instead of religious practitioners.

After the 1959 uprising in Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibet, Dalia Lama and his followers fled to India. The original leader of Tibet, Dalai Lama, has not been able to return to his country since then.