Trials of a Tibetan Monk: The Case of Tenzin Delek: VII. Tenzin Delek’s Life and Work Prior to His April 2002 Arrest

Monastic education was one of the few avenues——if not the only avenue——open to Tibetan families for educating sons. Tenzin Delek, the oldest child and only son of a Lithang nomad family, entered “into the livelihood”¹¹³ of Lithang Gonchen monastery, the major center of learning in the area, in 1957.¹¹⁴ He was seven years old. Several years earlier, Chinese authorities, alarmed by the extent of spontaneous, but isolated resistance that had begun in and around Lithang, had moved to disarm local Tibetans and had instituted “struggle sessions” to denounce villagers opposed to economic and political reform.¹¹⁵ Only a year before Tenzin Delek became a monk, in 1956, Chinese troops bombarded Lithang monastery during a brutal battle in which tens of thousands of combatants lost their lives.¹¹⁶ In 1959, as the military campaign against Tibetan resisters peaked, the area descended into chaos. That year, after Tenzin Delek’s teacher died during another battle, he went to live with an elderly relative where he could informally and clandestinely continue his studies.

Ten of the sixteen years Tenzin Delek was to live with this relative, working on the family farm, coincided with the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a decade of tremendous and violent social upheaval. Among other proscriptions, China’s leaders banned any form of religious expression any place in China. By the time the decade was over, few of the Tibetan temples and monasteries that had survived the 1950s were left intact and the numbers of monks and nuns had declined precipitously. Obviously, Tenzin Delek had no opportunity for formal study but he continued to risk studying covertly.

In the mid-1970’s, after Tenzin Delek’s relative died, he returned to his mother’s home. When he returned, even before it was really safe to do so, Tenzin Delek often brought home religious artifacts——statues, pictures, scriptures——that others had hidden in attempts to prevent their total destruction and that he had found unclaimed and still partially hidden. He showed them to interested villagers and explained their significance.¹¹⁸ His activism led to brief periods in local lockups——sometimes for ten days, sometimes for a month——and to repeated beatings. By the late 1970s, an opportunity to resume formal, if still clandestine, monastic studies with a prominent teacher became available in his home village.

By the late 1970s when it was no longer so dangerous, Tenzin Delek was using every available opportunity to press for the revival and enhancement of religious activity in the Lithang area. He was interested in re-opening and rebuilding monasteries and augmenting the ranks of monks.

Tenzin Delek’s first major opening came in 1979 during a short-lived period of relative liberalization, when a Tibet government-in-exile delegation, including Lobsang Samten, the Dalai Lama’s brother, came to investigate the situation in Tibetan areas. Although local authorities had insisted Tenzin Delek come for a short “reeducation” course because of his general opposition to Chinese policies¹¹⁹ and had restricted his right to travel, he managed to meet Lobsang Samten and to tell him about the destruction of Lithang monastery and the still standing restrictions on religious practice in the area.

A second initiative came in 1980 when the 10^th Panchen Lama, regarded by Tibetans as the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, traveled to Labrang monastery¹²⁰ in the course of his first visit to Tibetan areas in some eighteen years. He had been released three years earlier after having been held in a Chinese prison or in house arrest for fourteen years. Skeptics say the Chinese government permitted him to travel to Tibetan areas in order to assure the population that the Cultural Revolution had been wrong, and more importantly, with the Dalai Lama in exile in India, to bolster his own profile among Tibetans. At the time, with the full story of his relationship to the Chinese leadership authority still largely unknown, many thought of the Panchen Lama as a traitor to the Tibetan cause for having allegedly cooperated with Chinese authorities.¹²¹

Again, Tenzin Delek could not travel without permission, but again he managed a meeting. After describing how few monasteries were actually functioning, Tenzin Delek received assurances from the Panchen Lama that new regulations provided for the rebuilding of those destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and for rehabilitation of those Tibetans who had been mistreated. Armed with knowledge of the policy change, Tenzin Delek was able to pressure local officials for compliance, possibly at the price of their increased resentment. He repeatedly visited county officials in an attempt to have Lithang monastery re-opened. The first ceremonies there were held in the early 1980s; the monastery’s assembly hall was not completed until 1984.¹²²

Almost a decade later, the Panchen Lama’s backing made it possible for Tenzin Delek to overcome local officials’ opposition to his plans to build a permanent structure at a site in Orthok. Kham Nalendra Thegchen Jangchub Choeling, as it was named by the Panchen Lama, or Orthok monastery as it was commonly called, was to become Tenzin Delek’s main monastery. The Panchen Lama’s intervention helped further monastic studies in the area and enhanced Tenzin Delek’s own growing reputation at home and in other Tibetan areas, leading in turn to his ability to speak out with some impunity. He became a role model for those interested in preserving Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture. Tenzin Delek’s ability to win the Panchen Lama to his cause was a humiliating defeat for area officials.

In 1982, the Chinese leadership made explicit a new policy which recognized that the inevitable dissolution of religion in China would take a very long time.¹²³ Until then, limited religious beliefs and what came to be known as “normal” religious activities would be tolerated, but only as expressions of faith divorced from political and social realities and concerns. As Chinese authorities later argued, Tenzin Delek crossed the line. He might have categorized his activities as areas of legitimate monastic interest, but officials determined to bring religion under the aegis of the state categorized those same activities as political.

Tenzin Delek probably recognized the political nature of his activities. If not, it is probable that he would not have begun his monk recruitment initiative in secret.¹²⁴ Working through a clandestine network of trusted acquaintances, he attracted some 175 prospective monks, who, once they were ordained, returned to their home areas to help revive Tibetan Buddhism. But by 1982, the secret operation was so widely known and the numbers it attracted so large, that it was no longer safe to continue either recruitment or ordinations.

In 1982, Tenzin Delek left Lithang without permission from government authorities for study at Drepung monastery in India, in part because he wanted a broader education, in part because he had clashed repeatedly with those in control at Lithang Gonchen monastery, and in part because he feared arrest. He did not return home until 1987. By then, the Dalai Lama had recognized him as a reincarnation of a lama (Geshe Adon Phuntsog) affiliated to the monastery at Orthok and had given him the name Tenzin Delek. As already noted, before the change he was known as A-ngag Tashi. Tenzin Delek risked arrest at his return by carrying over the border, and later distributing, copies of the Dalai Lama’s writings and audio tapes of his speeches. According to a disciple, Tenzin Delek told his own supporters that “to follow His Holiness’ wish is more precious than your [own] life.”¹²⁵

Building a Base at Orthok Monastery

Shortly after his return from India in 1987, as noted above, a major project for Tenzin Delek was the construction of a permanent monastic structure in Orthok. For centuries, monks and lay people had come together there for religious ceremonies, festivals, and seasonal celebrations, apart from occasional periods when the site was inactive. There had been no permanent structure; those who attended the events, mostly nomads, stayed in tents. In 1988, Tenzin Delek attempted to construct a permanent facility. When local officials refused to issue the requisite permits, he traveled to Beijing to secure the Panchen Lama’s approval.

Orthok monastery was only the beginning. An ambitious building and renovation program begun in 1991 included a school and orphanage, an old-age facility, medical clinics, and seven branch monasteries. The social programs Tenzin Delek established were badly needed. His efforts made it possible for Tibetan children to receive some education which the minimal facilities in the area and the expense entailed had denied them. The medical facilities he established served the local community and nomads who were brought in by horseback. For the elderly who lacked proximity to medical facilities and for members of a monastic community who, without family, were badly in need of basic care, he provided a place to stay, blankets in winter, and a monthly allotment of meat, butter, and tsampa (roasted barley).

In addition, Tenzin Delek strove to turn Orthok monastery into a center of great learning and to make it into a facility that would expand the horizons of the local populace.¹²⁶ At his urging and sometimes with his financial support, young monks furthered the goal by traveling to Dharamsala, the seat of the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile, and to the great monasteries in Lhasa and other Tibetan communities to study Tibetan Buddhism, culture, medicine, arts, and music, to hone their skills, and to gain new experiences. Within the monastery, he established a Dialectics School and a special section to study Tibetan medicine. For both political and personal reasons, local officials may have resented Tenzin Delek’s increased activity and burgeoning prestige, but action to curtail his plans and what was viewed as his interference in local affairs was still several years away.

Standing Up to Local Officials and Promoting Environmental Conservation

Tenzin Delek’s awareness of how quickly an ecologically balanced environment could deteriorate and how ruinous that would be for local inhabitants prompted him to promote sound conservation habits. He preached against mining practices that would pollute the areas’ rivers and ruin the soil, logging practices that would cause flooding and soil erosion, and indiscriminate hunting that might lead to species loss. Tenzin Delek’s views alarmed local authorities who favored unhindered economic growth and who are reported to have personally profited from mining, clear cutting, and poaching.¹²⁷ As they learned, he was able to garner sufficient support to partially block the spread of deforestation in the Lithang/Nyagchu area.

Clear-cutting of old growth forests for profit was one of the most contentious environmental issues within a five-county region, which included Nyagchu and Lithang. According to former local activists, Chinese officials first became involved in “cutting trees like hairs on a head”¹²⁸ in Nyagchu county in the early 1980s.¹²⁹ Although it was necessary to build some roads and bridges to transport logs, thick stands of trees and a network of rivers made it relatively easy to cut and ship timber to central China. Tenzin Delek’s campaign against the practice began in 1987-88, but it wasn’t until 1993, after a sharp increase in deforestation practices provoked an escalating local response, that officials moved to directly counter his opposition.

According to those who formerly lived in the area, forest land was divided informally into three categories: one reserved for government use; one available to township¹³⁰ officials for their personal use, such as building a house; and the third, the so-called public land, for use by local residents. By 1993, the local residents had come to find two official practices almost intolerable. One was the need to obtain permission to “build a house or get poles for a nomad tent.” Former residents reported they had to “bribe officials, giving them butter and meat.”¹³¹ The second complaint related to the concern of residents that local security and forestry department officials were working in concert to divert public land to the government sector. According to one Chinese environmental activist with whom Human Rights Watch spoke, county budgets in some areas in China were heavily dependent on revenues from lumber.¹³² Forestry departments, he explained, were not created to protect resources; the expectation was that they would open up new areas for logging.¹³³

The issue came to a head in the Nyagchu area on November 9, 1993. It centered on a township called Lola. The government section was “pretty well logged out” and township and county officials had imminent plans to seize public lands. About a month earlier, they had moved a marker designating the border between “government” and “public” land.¹³⁴ As one source explained:

In the week before November 9th, Tenzin Delek convened a meeting for community leaders and family representatives. He explained that as local leaders, they had an obligation not to ignore the problem. But, he continued, no matter their collective decision, he was prepared to take on the issue even if it meant going to prison. According to one report, he said:

For their part, township officials tried to forestall local action by convening the November 9^th meeting to publicly announce that all public forest had been recategorized as forest reserved for government use or otherwise available for use of officials. County officials who happened to be in the immediate vicinity joined the meeting. Together they threatened trouble for all protesters.¹³⁷ Later that day, despite the risks, but confident that local support might prove crucial, three monks from Orthok monastery chose to confront the township officials. A monk who was present recounted what happened:

When the three monks returned to Orthok monastery, they learned from local residentsthat the authorities were planning their arrests. These same local residents offered protection by guarding the three for several nights and, as the danger grew, sending them to the mountains to sleep. As one monk put it, “It was a very bad time.”

In spite of accusations that Tenzin Delek had been interfering in affairs that were prerogatives of the government, county and prefecture officials attempted to defuse the situation by insisting he use his prestige to calm the local populace.¹³⁹ Prefecture officials agreed that once the situation was defused, they would deal with the forestry issue itself.

Tenzin Delek complied. At a meeting a week later, a Nyagchu county official, when questioned by Tenzin Delek, had to admit that he could not swear to the accuracy of other officials’ claims that there had been a change in government policy. According to those officials, the new policy had converted all forest originally reserved for the public’s use to forest which local governments could manage without public consultation. On the basis of the Nyagchu county official’s admission, Tenzin Delek went ahead and announced during alarge public prayer ceremony that the local populace would approve of the way the government-public land debate would be resolved. He added that no monks would be arrested; and he asked everyone to calm down.

When it quickly became clear that the prefecture officials who had asked for Tenzin Delek’s cooperation were not about to honor their pledge to restore public lands to the public, he and five others, monks and community representatives, took petitions, photographs, and letters to Sichuan provincial officials, explaining that if they could not receive redress there, they would go directly to the central government. The group then went to Beijing and complained to officials there. In the end, prefecture officials honored their promise to return to the public the lands that were rightfully theirs.

Although the controversy was resolved peacefully, several petitioners landed in serious trouble. As one informant involved in the effort explained:

For local officials, the entire incident resulted in a loss of face, a boost to Tenzin Delek’s prestige, and enhanced monastic influence. Local residents looked increasingly to Tenzin Delek to help solve problems; and local officials enjoyed less protection from their superiors further up the administrative hierarchy. As local officials were promoted, they took their resentments with them.

Tenzin Delek’s Religious Leadership

Loyalty to the Dalai Lama and Independent Religious Stance

Tenzin Delek’s support for the Dalai Lama was well known. His followers say he counseled them that when it came to religious matters, they should obey and help the Dalai Lama and follow his path, even at the expense of their own lives.¹⁴¹ He preached that heeding the Dalai Lama’s words would lead to peace and prosperity and to unity among Tibetans.¹⁴² However, support for the Dalai Lama appears to have been confined to religious matters, which was legal in China and Tibetan areas until 1995 (or later in some areas). In this respect Tenzin Delek was not breaking any Chinese laws.

According to Tenzin Delek’s admirers, he also told people that, “they should hold up Tibetan culture and religion, they should not let it become degraded, they should try to revive it….If you don’t do it yourself——preserve your religion and culture——no one else is going to come and do that for you.”¹⁴³

Tenzin Delek organized public events supporting the Dalai’s Lama’s religious status and celebrating his achievements. In the summer of 1993, for example, he held a long life prayer ceremony for the Dalai Lama. He used a large screen to display images relating to the Dalai Lama’s accomplishments.¹⁴⁴ As described below, he was vocal in his support of the Dalai Lama’s admonition not to propitiate Dorje Shugden.

However, Tenzin Delek also told his audiences about the Dalai Lama’s 1989 Nobel Peace Price, his 1987 Five-Point Peace Plan, and his 1988 Strasbourg Proposal.¹⁴⁵ Such remarks, political rather than religious, were probably illegal even in 1993 (although the relevant laws�prohibiting political support�were contrary to international human rights law). Even after the mid-1990s, when the Chinese state became increasingly involved in procedures for recognizing lamas, Tenzin Delek appears to have continued as before. He ignored the order against identifying incarnations without consulting China’s religious authorities.¹⁴⁶ And he refused to stop his building program or, when asked for help, his involvement in the affairs of monasteries he did not head.

The Impact of China’s Evolving Policies on the Dalai Lama

From 1979 until 1996, religious, as opposed to political, support for the Dalai Lama did not come under sustained attack in China. The change came as a result of the Third Forum, but was implemented gradually across Tibetan areas, from the west eastwards. By 1996, Tenzin Delek’s allegiance to the Dalai Lama and support for his policies, such as opposition to worship of the deity Dorje Shugden, were viewed not as matters of religious belief, but as political challenges to the central government.

In July 1994, at the Third National Forum on Work in Tibet, China’s leadership decided on a series of steps to curb the growth of religion in Tibet and to bring it more fully under the control of government and Party authorities. Much of the crackdown involved reductions in the number of monasteries and the number of monks and curbed the independence of senior monastic leaders. A year later, in May 1995, a dispute broke out over whether Chinese authorities or the Dalai Lama controlled selection of the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and, by implication, of all major religious leaders. Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, has disappeared from view; Gyaltsen Norbu, the government’s choice, has been moved from Tashilhunpo, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, to Beijing, where Chinese officials closely supervise his education.

In 1996, on the basis of a directive from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, “patriotic education” in the monasteries began in earnest. Monks were required to denounce the Dalai Lama, reject the Panchen Lama chosen by him, and write and sign formal statements acknowledging their acquiescence and supporting the official view that Tibet has always been an integral part of China.¹⁴⁷ In addition, as part of the attempt to vet all religious personnel for patriotism, willingness to follow state religious policy, and distance from the “Dalai clique,” county and provincial officials and religious authorities consulted on pending reincarnations. Once decisions were taken, the Chinese government issued authorizations to those lamas it recognized. Neither Tenzin Delek nor the lamas he had recognized ever received official approval.

Taken together, the new policies had a major impact on the fortunes of Tenzin Delek, who seemingly paid little attention to attempts to limit his activities and influence. They had the effect of casting him in the role of a public political dissident, a “splittist,” a non-cooperator who acted as if he were a locally independent agent when it came to religious affairs. His non-compliance had the potential to derail the careers of local officials responsible for making certain that government directives were successfully implemented.

Officials from the eighteen counties that comprise the Kardze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture first announced application of the new policies in September 1995. Henceforth, there was to be no construction of monasteries or schools without explicit permission from the county involved; and to ensure compliance, surveillance of Tenzin Delek would be increased.¹⁴⁸ The changes might have been partially in response to a strong statement he made at a prefectural meeting chastising local and central government officials for neglecting the public’s welfare. Among other issues, Tenzin Delek spoke on the lack of both modern and traditional Tibetan education in nomadic areas, the weakness of the local economy, and the populace’s lack of access to the area’s natural resources.¹⁴⁹

In 1996, when Tenzin Delek was told that he could not recognize the Panchen Lama chosen by the Dalai Lama, he is reported to have said, “My feeling is that I believe the one chosen by the Dalai Lama. Also, I believe, the Tibetan people will also believe that, too. The one recognized by the Chinese government——I don’t know anything about it.”¹⁵⁰ In short, Tenzin Delek, though firm in his defense of the Dalai Lama, was careful and ambiguous; he did not denounce the government’s candidate. That same year, when it was decreed that the Dalai Lama’s photo could not be displayed in monasteries and that monastic leaders would have to preach against the Dalai Lama’s “splittism,” Tenzin Delek refused to comply.

In 1996, Tenzin Delek was told that his practice of sending monks and students to monasteries in other Tibetan areas and in India for study was illegal. He was made responsible for bringing home all those who had not yet returned. According to one informant, Chinese authorities feared that as his students moved beyond the Lithang/Nyagchu area, Tenzin Delek’s reputation and influence would spread with them.¹⁵¹

In 1997, the Religious Affairs Bureau and the United Front Work Department informed Tenzin Delek in a letter addressing him as Rinpoche that he was to refrain from any involvement in political affairs. The document, entitled “The Six Articles,” detailed the ways in which Tenzin Delek had violated religious policy. By 2000, in a letter addressing him by his lay name, A-ngag Tashi (in Chinese pinyin A’an Zhaxi), he was accused of engaging in the very activities about which he had been warned. The letter went on to advise him that his status as a religious leader had been downgraded.¹⁵²

Opposition to Worship of Dorje Shugden

Chinese authorities also used an esoteric religious dispute over Dorje Shugden, a Tibetan Buddhist protector deity, to attack Tenzin Delek, equating his active support for the Dalai Lama’s anti-Shugden stance with opposition to Chinese policy. Although the debate, which has waxed and waned for more than two decades, has no specific political aspect, support for the Dalai Lama on the issue seems to have been viewed as tantamount to “splittism.”

Dorje Shugden is considered a powerful magical being who can help propitiators acquire worldly goods and other powers and benefits. The deity is also seen by some as a protector of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. In addition, the deity is regarded as being able to inflict harm on those who stop propitiating it or on those who belong to other sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1976, the Dalai Lama stopped worshipping Shugden and began to teach that such worship could be harmful to individuals who offended the deity. He advised that Dorje Shugden was harmful to him and to the cause of Tibetan independence. He said that genuine deities think in terms of liberating people from suffering, not in terms of harming them. He saw it as his duty to bring the issue to the attention of Tibetan Buddhists, but to leave it to each individual to decide whether to follow his advice.

In 1996, the Dalai Lama went further, banning Shugden worship for those who wished to be his immediate followers or to take teaching from him. At that point, well-organized Shugden supporters in the Tibetan diaspora mounted active opposition to the Dalai Lama’s position, going so far as to accuse him of denying religious freedom to Shugden supporters. The seemingly narrow issue of whether Dorje Shugden was a beneficial or harmful deity masked other issues within and among the four sects that comprise Tibetan Buddhism. It also became a deeply divisive issue within the Gelugpa school, which the Dalai Lama leads, between ultra-conservatives who continued to worship the deity and a larger grouping which followed the Dalai Lama’s approach.

According to some accounts, Chinese government officials even promoted Shugden worship in Tibetan communities.¹⁵³ Their goals, it appeared, were to dampen the Dalai Lama’s moral authority within the Tibetan and international communities and to use theological differences to exacerbate divisions within the Tibetan community.

Southern Kham is where support for the deity in the region has traditionally been strongest. Tenzin Delek joined the campaign against Shugden worship as early as 1979 when he brought evidence of the practice at Lithang Gonchen monastery to the attention of the 10^th Panchen Lama. When Tenzin Delek returned from India in 1987, he again resisted pressure to join in Shugden worship and again preached against the practice to the general public, to monks at Lithang Gonchen monastery, and to village elders. He even announced he would not set foot in Lithang Gonchen monastery until the practice there stopped.¹⁵⁴ His doing so reportedly resulted in some monks leaving Lithang Gonchen, the major religious facility in the area, and taking up residence at Orthok monastery.¹⁵⁵ Such defections, coupled with others attributable to the availability of new permanent facilities at Orthok monastery and Tenzin Delek’s presence there, might have been regarded as evidence of his rising prominence and have led to anxiety over competition for resources.

The controversy continued to simmer and occasionally to flare. In 1999, several non-Shugden worshipping Lithang Gonchen monks were briefly detained.¹⁵⁶ Two years later, not long before Tenzin Delek was arrested and after an influential lama at Lithang Gonchen monastery decided he would not longer propitiate the deity, Shugden worship there all but disappeared. Monks came from “everywhere” to participate in a ceremony marking the change.¹⁵⁷

Chinese officials continue to call for Dorje Shugden worship. As noted at the outset of this report, they also claim that one or two of the bombings to which Tenzin Delek and Lobsang Dondrup allegedly confessed occurred in close proximity to a senior monk who had supported Shugden worship.¹⁵⁸

Other highly respected Buddhist leaders in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have suffered because of their support for the Dalai Lama as a religious figure and because of the respect and loyalty they engender from within local monastic and lay communities. Although the stories differ in the details, a common theme runs throughout, starting with concern on the part of Chinese authorities that these popular and charismatic figures make it difficult for the government to eliminate the veneration of the Dalai Lama and to dampen enthusiasm for religion. Chinese leaders fear that belief in Tibetan Buddhism, entwined as it is with Tibetan identity, will continue to support popular yearning for an independent Tibet.

Two cases of particular concern in Kardze are those of Sonam Phuntsog, serving out a five-year sentence for splittism, and the situation at Larung Gar, a monastic community formerly headed by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog, which has been forced to drastically curtail its operations.

Heightened Official Crackdown

Tenzin Delek’s efforts on behalf of environmental conservation and religious positions, including his 1995 refusal to recognize the boy chosen by the Chinese as the 11^th Panchen Lama, put local religious officials at risk. He made it difficult, if not impossible, for them to assure central religious authorities that all religious leaders in their districts publicly and privately supported the government’s stance and would insist that the monks they led acquiesce. In 1996, when the central government began its “patriotic education campaign” in the monasteries, thus increasing the pressure on those same local officials, Tenzin Delek still refused to comply. His further refusal to seek consultation with government authorities on other religious matters, such as recognition of incarnate lamas and establishment of new monasteries, also challenged their control and their prestige.

In 1997, the Kardze Prefecture Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) convened a meeting to discuss Tenzin Delek’s activities, finally issuing a document, “A’an Zhaxi Breaks the Law,” enumerating how Tenzin Delek had violated religious policy. It accused him of building new monasteries and schools without the requisite official permission, meddling in the work of other monasteries,¹⁵⁹ arrogating to himself the title of Rinpoche, recognizing tulkus¹⁶⁰ without consulting religious authorities, interfering with people’s right to believe as they choose by preaching against Dorje Shugden worship, and preaching harmful concepts.¹⁶¹

Therefore, the document stated, his title would no longer be recognized as legitimate and he would be required to cease engaging in activities associated with Rinpoche status, such as preaching, taking part in ceremonies and festivals at monasteries other than Jamyang Choekhorling, and furthering construction of new or existing monasteries. Those tulkus Tenzin Delek had already recognized would be stripped of legitimacy. His new status meant he would be required to obey the orders of the zhuren, the monastery head appointed by and responsible to the government’s Religious Affairs Bureau and the United Front Work Department.¹⁶² In addition, the Religious Affairs Bureau rescinded his membership in the Lithang County Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress¹⁶³ and stripped him of his right to speak at Nyagchu county meetings.¹⁶⁴

Officials from Kardze Prefecture and the Religious Affairs Bureau distributed the document in the form of a small book to government offices and the population at large in all eighteen counties. Some months later, the Religious Affairs Bureau and the United Front Work Department quietly began collecting the distributed copies.

On August 10, 1997, not long after the meeting, Tenzin Delek fled to the mountains, believing he was in imminent danger of arrest in part because local authorities had launched an investigation into the appearance of pro-independence leaflets.¹⁶⁵ He left behind a tape recording, meant for Nyagchu county officials and delivered to its Religious Affairs Bureau, declaring: “I have been accused [of using religion to carry on political activities] but I’ve done nothing wrong. If I get arrested I see a problem [unrest] coming from the people, so I had better just go away for awhile.” He went on to ask the authorities to rectify the problem.¹⁶⁶

A little more than a month later, after careful coordination between Tenzin Delek’s monasteries and the surrounding villages, local residents mounted an unprecedented protest, a march to Nyagchukha, the county seat. The day before the planned action, the organizers helped ensure its success by dispatching a student monk to surrounding villages to announce the time and place. Some 400-500 people, primarily farmers, willingly assumed the personal risks associated with such a public event. Security forces attempted, but failed, to intercept the protesters at the rendezvous site. Through verbal intimidation, the overwhelmed officers did manage to cut the number of participants in half. They called out the names of marchers, telling them “you have to behave”; “we know who you are”; we’re watching you”; “we will take care of you in a few days, we can do that.”¹⁶⁷ Those who made it to Nyagchukha protested to county authorities that Tenzin Delek was the only one who cared about the people, that they had driven him away, and it was up to them to return him to the people.¹⁶⁸ Except for some broken windows and a “few punches” thrown by Tibetans,¹⁶⁹ the demonstration proceeded peacefully.

SIMILAR CRACKDOWNS IN THE KARDZE TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURE

Sonam Phuntsog

Sonam Phuntsog, a respected scholar and influential Tibetan language teacher at Dargye monastery in Kardze county in Sichuan province is serving out the last year of his five-year sentence for “inciting splittism.” He was detained on October 24, 1999 and convicted in a closed trial in November 2000. According to the court verdict, officers from the Kardze County Public Security Bureau detained him “on suspicion of taking part in a bombing incident” at a small building owned by a Shugden propitiator. However, the charges against him included nothing about the bombing. Instead they related to his support for the Dalai Lama. The verdict reasoned that as Chinese leaders identify the Dalai Lama as a “political exile who is engaging in activities to split the motherland,”^a then Sonam Phuntsog, by virtue of his support for him, is also a “splittist.” No distinction is made between veneration for the Dalai Lama as a religious figure and support for what Chinese authorities consider his agitation for Tibetan independence. As the verdict notes, “The issue of the Dalai Lama is not a religious issue but a political one.”^b

The series of activities cited in support of the verdict against Sonam Phuntsog speak to the issue. They include: meeting and having his picture taken with the Dalai Lama in India and, after his return, organizing a gathering for some 2,000 monks who “chanted long life prayers for the Dalai Lama.” He was faulted for holding up “a huge photograph of the Dalai Lama,” which he “had provided himself,” and for “urging everyone to listen whole-heartedly to what the Dalai Lama says.”^c Sonam Phuntsog denied that the main content of his teaching was as charged. He denied he had ever said anything about “Tibetan independence.”

According to the verdict, some 3,000 (other reports put the figure at 300) Tibetans protested his detention in the Kardze county seat, “which had an extremely negative effect.” In 1999, when these events took place, the program to limit the independence of influential monks and lamas was well underway in the Kardze region. Demonstrated support for Sonam Phuntsog might well have given Chinese authorities further reason to separate him from his followers.

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog and the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute

Chinese authorities have succeeded in severely scaling back the number of monks and nuns permitted to study at the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, the most prestigious Tibetan Buddhist monastic center in Tibetan areas. It is located in the remote mountains of the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province. At its height, the academy — it is not a monastery - founded in 1980 by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog, who until he died on January 7, 2004 was the senior teacher, housed some 6-7,000 monks and nuns. The Chinese government’s goal, to reduce the total population to some 1,500, was to be accomplished through expulsions and by razing the living quarters of those made to leave.^d

Officials from the Beijing office of the United Front Work Department, a Chinese Communist Party organ, traveled to the site to help direct the operation. Their participation implies that the highest-level Party officials were involved in the decision to scale back the complex.

Although Jigme Phuntsog avoided political controversy, hewing to the purpose for which Larung Gar was founded, to revive and preserve Buddhist scholarship, officials apparently were concerned that the institute “was following the wrong path.”^e The prevailing theme was strikingly similar to those that surfaced in the cases of Tenzin Delek and Sonam Phuntsog. Some reports said Jigme Phuntsog had refused to denounce the Dalai Lama; and there were concerns expressed that the increasing number of monks and nuns concentrated in one place added to the possibility of “splittist” activities. Those expelled were made to sign documents denunciating the Dalai Lama, agreeing to uphold Chinese religious policy guidelines and policy, and pledging not to return to Larung Gar.

Jigme Phuntsog, in ill health for some time, returned to the institute a little over a year after the destruction began. He had been removed to a military hospital; later reports put him in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. His first public teaching came in November 2002 under the watchful eyes of the police. Several months earlier he had begun to give teachings in Larung Gar’s main temple to officially sanctioned monks and nuns. When Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog died on January 7, 2004, he was seventy years old and had been in ill health for some time.

A team of plainclothes police from the local township reportedly has taken up permanent residence at Larung Gar.

^a “Criminal Verdict of the Sichuan Province Ganzi Tibetan Minority Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court,” Selection of Cases From The Criminal Law, Occasional Publications of the Dui Hua Foundation, No. 13, August 2003, p. 51.

^b Ibid., p. 52.

^c Ibid., pp.51-53.

^d “Expulsions of nuns and students threaten survival of important Tibetan Buddhist institute,” TIN News Updates, August 19, 2001, http://www.tibetinfo.co.uk/news-updates/nu190801.htm (retrieved December 2, 2003).

^e “Serthar teacher now in Chengdu; new information on expulsions of nuns at Buddhist institute,” TIN News Updates, November 8, 2001, http://www.tibetinfo.co.uk/news-updates/nu081101.htm (retrieved December 2, 2003).

A demonstration of this kind is highly unusual in Tibetan areas. It reflected the stature which Tenzin Delek had achieved in the region and the importance of his projects to local inhabitants.

It took almost six months and appeals to provincial officials before there was agreement in writing that Tenzin Delek would not be harmed if he returned.¹⁷⁰ However, he had to agree to some of the original terms: no political activities, no interference in other monasteries’ administrations, and no teachings at other monasteries.¹⁷¹

According to one informant, the crowd in Nyagchukha that greeted his return on January 27, 1998 was the largest ever to assemble there.¹⁷² One estimate suggested that tens of thousands took part.¹⁷³ A prefecture official publicly laid out conditions under which Tenzin Delek could remain free. These included restrictions on his right to move about, to speak freely, and to engage in activities local authorities deemed political. One official reportedly told him:

Tenzin Delek complied with the order to stay close to Nyagchukha, “where he belonged.”¹⁷⁶ He moved to Jamyang Choekhorling, a property he had purchased from a local family in 1991 and had gradually converted to a monastery. He was in residence there at the time of his April 2002 arrest. Although the reason why he was to move to Nyagchukha was never made clear, the assumption has been that it made surveillance much easier. Orthok is in a rural area a two- to three-hour drive from Nyagchukha. Jamyang Choekhorling is a five-minute walk from the center of town.

Although Tenzin Delek avoided the proscribed activities, he found other ways to promote his social ideas. He continued with his plans to establish schools in an area where educational facilities, particularly for nomads, were scarce or non-existent. The Geshe Lungpa school was established in early 1998. Later that year, Tenzin Delek founded an old-age home and a medical clinic.

In mid-June 2000, following a hiatus of more than two years, officials again summoned Tenzin Delek. It is unclear why they waited so long. According to some informants, local authorities did not want to risk another protest and anticipated that with Tenzin Delek’s activities curtailed, his support would wane.

In Nyagchukha, Tenzin Delek and two assistants met first with officials from the prefecture’s Religious Affairs Bureau and then with United Front Work Department cadres who castigated him for flouting travel restrictions. Tenzin Delek finally met alone with prefectural Public Security Bureau and State Security Bureau officials. During lengthy discussions, they pressured him to sign a document that included not only the “crimes” listed in the 1997 document but several others: inciting the local populace to protest the forestry department’s logging policy, and opposing China’s birth control policies.¹⁷⁷ He was ordered to recognize the Chinese-chosen Panchen Lama, to ban photos of the Dalai Lama in his monasteries, and to preach against “Dalai splittists.” And he was accused of using the preservation of forest lands as a self-serving pretext for attacking the government and certain officials.¹⁷⁸ At the threat of “inconveniencing” him, the Kardze security officers insisted he admit in writing to the offenses and agree to cease the listed practices.

Accounts of how Tenzin Delek responded differ. According to Wang Lixiong, an activist author and champion of Tenzin Delek’s cause, who interviewed Tenzin Delek in 2001, the later was forced to sign his confession in thirty places.¹⁷⁹ An assistant who was with him that day said Tenzin Delek refused to protest against the Dalai Lama, recognize the Chinese-chosen Panchen Lama, or ban the photos.¹⁸⁰ Still others reported that although Tenzin Delek would not agree to the recognition, he agreed not to propagate his personal belief in the child the Dalai Lama chose as the Panchen Lama. He reportedly also consented to refrain from talking about Shugden or birth control and abortion in public as the former had political implications and opposing abortion and birth control violated Chinese law. But, he said, he “regretted” that he was not free to speak out.¹⁸¹ As for building monasteries without permission, Tenzin Delek said he was only helping local groups after they were cleared to build and, he argued, it was up to the local populace to decide whether the tulkus he had recognized were genuine.

In mid-June 2000, a day or two after Tenzin Delek’s “confession,” prefectural officials at either the United Front Work Department or the Religious Affairs Bureau contacted him by telephone in the middle of the night, “requesting” he come alone to Dartsedo within the next two days. He was told that if anyone asked, he was to tell them he needed a medical checkup.¹⁸² Instead, on June 16, Tenzin Delek again took to the mountains. He explained his decision this way:

In response, local leaders and close associates coordinated a massive and unusual petitioning effort¹⁸⁴ that ultimately took supporters simultaneously to Beijing, Chengdu, Dartsedo, Nyagchukha, and several other places to speak with officials at the United Front Work Department, the Religious Affairs Bureau, and the Petitions Office. Their basic message was:

Several of the men who organized the petition drive faced extensive questioning about who wrote the petition, who initiated it, what motivated them; and whether there was an organization behind the effort.

In the end, officials in the in the Petitions Office in Beijing agreed that Tenzin Delek would not be in trouble if he returned.¹⁸⁷ When he did, on December 20, 2000, he “put himself right under the eyelids of the authorities, hoping that this way, they would feel a little more relaxed.”¹⁸⁸ As Wang Lixiong, who interviewed him in 2001 recognized, “He made the prefecture and county authorities lose face. Surely they would not be able to simply leave it at that. It was with this kind of doubt that I parted from him.”¹⁸⁹

According to one informant, from the time Tenzin Delek returned home until his arrest, a matter of some fifteen months, he was effectively silenced and marginalized. He could not speak out on issues that lay or religious authorities considered political. His ability to meet with his followers was drastically curtailed. On the surface, it appeared as if there would be no further confrontations.

Until December 2000, Tenzin Delek had managed to stay intimately involved in the running of his seven branch monasteries. Several senior Orthok monks lived and worked in six of the seven. They taught, tended to administrative duties, and dealt with disciplinary issues. In collaboration with local leaders, they instructed community residents about environmental protection, the dangers of excessive drinking and criminal behavior, and the problems associated with immoderate hunting. Tenzin Delek visited each of the six monasteries at least twice a year and sent detailed instructions to the other.

However, his decreased ability to skirt the travel restrictions imposed by the Religious Affairs Bureau and the UFWD further hampered his oversight. His followers characterized the provision as being more like house arrest.¹⁹⁰ Any trip out of Nyagchu county, or of more than a day’s duration within the county, required permission, as did any trip involving teachings before a large audience. Trips outside the county, for example, required the consent of three people: two government officials, one from Nyagchu and one from the other county involved, as well as the head of the monastery Tenzin Delek planned to visit. The same individuals determined how long the visit could last.

In the end, Tenzin Delek’s willingness to make it easier for officials to monitor his movements did little to ameliorate official concern. He was detained for the third and last time in April 2002, tried in November, and sentenced to death, suspended for two years, in December. His final appeal was heard on January 26, 2003.