Tibetan Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama gestures as he speaks to 2,000 students in Bodh Gaya, India, on 31 December 2016. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
BODH GAYA, India, 1 January 2017
China has recalled Tibetans who had travelled to India to attend the Kalachakra empowerment given by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
According to sources, Chinese authorities had gone to the families of those who are travelling and told them to inform the travellers they must come back by 3rd of this month, which is the day the Dalai Lama begins his teachings.
“We have been called back home no later than 3rd of this month,” a man from eastern Tibet who didn’t wish to be named told Tibet Sun.
The man’s son had called him informing him about the Chinese order for return.
He said that the authorities had taken signatures from their family members to make sure that the travellers had been informed, and that they get back as per their order.
“There is no freedom in Tibet,” the man said.
The Dalai Lama addressed the Tibetan pilgrims several times in groups in McLeod Ganj, Delhi, and Bodh Gaya, asking them to remain strong and positive.
He told those who had intended to attend the Kalachakra Empowerment not to worry if circumstances now made that difficult, said a post on his website dalailama.com.
He encouraged them to remember to think of Kalachakra on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of this Tibetan month, which correspond to the 11th, 12th, and 13th of January in the common calendar. He assured them that as he gives the Empowerment, he will think of them and keep them in mind, so they can feel confident that they have received its blessings.
The Kalachakra initiation will begin with ritual preparations on 2 January, and end with a long-life prayer ceremony for the Dalai Lama on 14 January.
Tibetans living under the oppressive Chinese communist rule are forcibly denied even the right to receive religious teachings from their most revered spiritual master. The real situation inside occupied Tibet is far worse than what we hear and read outside. People are put under constant surveillance and they are followed and spied upon by their neighbours and fellow colleagues at work place, market, and monasteries. There are Chinese informers all around the places where people gather for celebrating festivals.
There is no freedom of movement inside and outside Tibet, and when somebody from a family travels to Nepal and India, other members of the family automatically come under Chinese suspicion. People live in constant fear of being arrested by local police officers, who have extra-judicial powers.