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TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN
monks from Kirti, where at least 10 Tibetans were shot dead during protests in March,
also applied for special permission to hold prayers for the Chinese victims of the earthquake
in Sichuan in May. Their statement is reproduced in full in this report. 3
Professor Tsering Shakya has also commented that almost all areas where protests
have occurred since March were in places where the senior lamas had left Tibet, driven
into exile due to repressive policies on religion, and specifically the imposition of a
Chinese Panchen Lama in 1995. Some of these senior lamas, such as the 17th Karmapa,
now in India, and abbot of Kumbum monastery Agya Rinpoche, had acted as moderate
voices and Party mediators in the past. Since March, some senior religious figures
have attempted to act as mediators, but have often been treated harshly for doing so,
as this report shows.
However, the question may not only be the issue of the presence of senior religious figures,
as some still exist in areas of Kham in particular, but the fact that the influence
of senior lamas has been systematically undermined by Party policy and there is less
space for voices of moderation. In many cases too since March senior religious figures
and lamas have been unable to prevent the expression of sentiment towards the
government.
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