A Tibetan hangs up a newly-gifted portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Dzoge County in eastern Tibet in early 2020. File photo/Free Tibet
Tibet Sun Online News
ON THE WEB, 25 April 2020
Chinese authorities are forcing Tibetans to display portraits of Chinese leaders at their homes, replacing portraits of the Dalai Lama who they revere as their leader, according to Free Tibet, a London-based pro-Tibet organisation.
This policy is the latest in a series by the Chinese government to demand the loyalty of Tibetans to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the People’s Republic of China.
Previously, this policy was only compulsory for Tibetan families that were dependent on state support under the poverty alleviation programme. The policy was extended to the wider community at the beginning of the year.
Authorities in the region have stated that people should “remember the gratitude of the Party and in the spirit of following the Party, all households, monasteries, schools and offices must display the portrait of top party leaders.”
Portraits were distributed across Tibet to villagers, schools, monasteries, and offices to hang on their walls, or altars, which are typically reserved for images of Buddha, the Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leaders.
It is reported that authorities are then inspecting each household to check whether this order has been carried out.
Tibet Watch, a monitoring group, has obtained images that showed the distribution of framed images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Dzoge County in eastern Tibet. An estimated 14,000 images of this kind have been distributed across the county.
Since 2012, various programmes to ensure loyalty and patriotism among Tibetans to the CPC and the Chinese state have been launched. Under the pretext of the fight against separatism, the massive drive has been launched rigorously throughout Tibet since 2017.
Patriotic re-education, forced displays of loyalty to the Party and the state, eradication of connections to the Dalai Lama, and such similar efforts have been relentless in Tibet. The main objective of this programme is to transfer the reverence and loyalty that Tibetans have for the Dalai Lama and the Buddhism to the CPC leaders.
Tibetans are said to have been targeted or arrested by the Chinese authorities after they are being seen holding loyalty and faith in the Dalai Lama, as deviating from the rules of the programme.
Since the arrival of Xi Jinping in political leadership, the party’s approach to Tibetans has been more aggressive. This has been backed by ever-increasing surveillance alongside various programmes aimed to brainwash, indoctrinate, and transform the loyalties of Tibetans.
This is a desperate attempt by the CCP to wipe out the Tibetan people’s devotion to the Dalai Lama. To erase His influence and put the stamp of the CCP is their ultimate goal. Once the Dalai Lama’s portraits are removed and replaced by the photos of the CCP leaders, they are trying to change the mental outlook of the Tibetans inside Tibet. They want the Tibetans to forget our identity and instead identify with China and become Chinese. They have forbidden children to see monks or attend Buddhist celebrations. Now, they are using Mandarin to teach other subjects instead of Tibetan.
However, the devotion of the Tibetans for Buddhism and their Lamas will not diminish. The Tibetan Lamas that people worship are kind, caring, self-less, and work for the well-being of all sentient beings. In the words of the first Dalai Lama Gedundrub: རང་དོན་སྒྲུབ་ལ་ནམ་ཡང་མི་རེ་ཞིང་། གཞན་དོན་འབའ་ཞིག་སྒྲུབ་ལ་གཞོལ་བ་དང་། སྤྱན་དང་མངོན་ཤེས་སྨ་མཁས་བཟོད་པ་སོགས། གཞན་དོན་བྱེད་པའི་རྐྱེན་རྣམས་ཚང་བར་ཤོག (May I never work for the well-being of myself, but instead forever work for the well-being of others.)
To that end, may I be equipped with Divine wisdom, clairvoyance, mastery of speech, and tolerance in order to fulfill this wish). These are the qualities which make the Tibetans worship the Dalai Lama and other Lamas. They have a special quality that very few ordinary people possess. They are called Lamas because of such magnanimity and gracious love and compassion to all beings. On the other hand the Communist dictators are the opposite.They are obsessively selfish and think only of themselves and nobody else. They are the most cruel and brutal human beings that have set foot on this world. It’s an insult to Tibetans to put up the pictures of such odious dictators. You have to earn respect through your actions.