Tibetan Abbot Forced To Step Down

June 19, 2007

Author: Chakmo Tso, translated by Karma Dorjee

Source: NewsReleaseWire.com

http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=16907

WASHINGTON—The head of a large Buddhist monastery in Chinese-run Tibet has been forced to step down after he refused to sign documents condemning the Dalai Lama, the monk and a local official have told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

“I spoke out loudly and refused to sign. I declared that I will not sign even at the cost my life, or risk of imprisonment, [or] death in a court,” Khenpo Tsanor, 70, the head of Dungkyab monastery in Gade county [in Chinese, Gande] in Golog Tibetan Prefecture, Qinghai province, told RFA’s Tibetan service. He said he officially stepped down in mid-May.

“I saw the government documents... It was written that the Dalai Lama should be thoroughly criticized and his splittist behavior should be condemned,” he said.

“I had no intention to sign. I knew very well that all who do not sign have to face trial in a Chinese court. They even threatened that the monastery would be shut down if we did not sign documents” from county officials as part of a religious and patriotic re-education campaign, he said.

“Some county officials came to the monastery [and] asked me whether I will agree to step down from the position of chief abbot,” he said. “I agreed since I didn't have the option of not accepting it.”

“It is so difficult for me to sit in such painful meetings,” he said, referring to mandatory sessions with officials aiming to quash support for the Tibetan exile leader, the Dalai Lama.

Officials at the Gande religious affairs department declined to comment on several occasions. But another Gande county official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed Khenpo Tsanor’s account.

The official also said county authorities were in the process of stepping up their patriotic re-education campaign and aiming to make Dungkyab a “model” monastery comprising only monks loyal to China.