General Communist ideology toward religion can be summed up in Karl Marx’s infamous phrase, “Religion is the opiate of the mass”. In the eyes of many communists, religion challenges the Revolution in two direct ways. First, religion is a tool of the bourgeois used to suppress the masses and take their eyes away from their condition. Second, under Leninist or Maoist governments religion is seen a challenging the authority of the state. Buddhism is perhaps the greatest challenger in the eyes of communists in China, in its dogged determination to retain the independence of its nunneries and monasteries.
Despite this ideological distrust of religion, it is not impossible to for religion to exist alongside a communist state. Communist Poland found a way to co-exist with the Catholic Church, a fact the PRC has chosen not to appreciate or attempted to replicate.
Instead of attempting to co-exist with religion, the People's Republic of China has chosen a policy of control. The strength of the Party’s control on religion in China. and especially Tibet has fluctuated over the half century since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The range of control has been from a tight grasp following civil disorder or general uprising to almost strangling religion into extinction at times such as the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).
Buddhism has a long history in China, and an even longer in Tibet. It was first introduced in the sixth century Common Era and was quickly adopted by the Hen Emperors. Since that time Buddhism has experienced many different relations with the state in China, sometimes adopted as the state religion, sometimes feared and opposed for the independence of its monasteries, and sometime attacked outright. Despite these mixed fates Buddhism has a strong base in China, partly due to its reinforcement of the Taoist and Confucian values, values which form the base of much of Chinese culture and society.
In Tibet itself Buddhism plays and even more vital role. Buddhism exists in every aspect of life, forming the base of all Tibetan culture. This is especially obvious in the combination of religion and politics, seen primarily through the position of his holiness the Dalhi Lama as both religious and political leader of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.
Within the PRC itself, the government claims that religious freedom exists, and that over 100 million people freely practice their chosen religion. However, this can be viewed in very different light when one considers the PRC’s definition of ‘religious freedom’ and that the government of the PRC has been using the 100 million statistic since the 1950’s.
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right states that “Everyone has the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion”, and that this freedom includes the right to practice and teach religion “either alone or in community” .
Throughout its history, and more importantly in response to international criticism over its actions concerning human rights, the PRC has clamed that it has abided by the declaration. However problems have arisen over the PRC’s definition of religious freedom. The PRC holds religious freedom as being able to believe what you wish, but deny that religious freedom includes the right to practice religion as a community. The Chinese government’s fear is that any sense of identity that comes with religion might supersede the patriotic national identity. The PRC has stated that religion may exist, however it “should not be used for politics of any sense but for a spiritual richness of mankind.” To this end, the Government will oppose any religious movement which has even the slightest inkling of a political identity. This line of thinking can be seen as one of the key problems in the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and Tibetan Buddhism, in that, as we have seen, Tibetan Buddhism has long held a important role in Tibet, involving all affairs, including political.
In regards to religion, the policy of the PRC is one of control. However, the PRC has encountered some heavy problems when attempting to control something as entrenched as Tibetan Buddhism among the Tibetans. Tibet is historically a Buddhist kingdom, where politics and religion were one, thus when the People’s Liberation Army crossed the border in 1950 not only was the state of Tibet attacked, but so was the religion. The PRC clams that Tibet has always been a part of China and never an independent state and thus the treatment of its Tibetan ‘citizens’ was their business alone. The assertion that Tibet is a part of China is fiercely contested by the Tibetans.
The relationship between religion and state is undoubtedly worse in Tibet than any other area under PRC control due to the complex relationship of Tibetan Buddhism to the people and government of Tibet. Not only is Tibetan Buddhism perceived as a religion which threatens the state by focusing identity away from the nation as a whole, but also as a major political movement which opposes the occupation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.
In the decades immediately following the invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1950, the government of the newly founded PRC, still lead by Chairman Mao, initially made no strong movies against the Buddhist institution of Tibet. This, however, was not long lasted, as the PRC consolidated their control on Tibet and the occupying forces cracked down hard on Buddhism in Tibet. Across Tibet monasteries were attacked, burnt, and often enough, the occupants slaughtered. There are many stories of monks being forced to shoot the senior monks in the same manner children had been forced to shoot their parents during the invasion. By 1966 it was estimated that 80% of Tibet monasteries had been destroyed. As horrifying and brutal as this period was, what followed was even more so.
The decade of ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966-1967) as declared by then Chairman Mao restructured the People’s Republic of China in all aspects of life. Rooting out and destroying ‘the four olds’, old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits and replacing them with four news, based on Maoist ideas, values, and beliefs . The effects of the Cultural Revolution were felt throughout China as millions were ‘re-educated’ and millions more died, as the ‘four old’ were stamped out. However in Tibet the effects were particular hard hitting.
Where before religion had been controlled, and attacked, it was now outlawed, and the PRC set about waging war on Tibetan Buddhism. Under the ideas of the ‘great proletariat cultural revolution’ Tibetan Buddhism was seen to be a strong hold of the ‘four olds’, and thus something which needed to be destroyed.
Never before, and not since, has the relationship between the government of the PRC and Tibetan Buddhism been so brutally savage as it was during the ‘Cultural Evolution’. Such was the devastation that Alexander Solzehnitsyn commented that “[Chinas rule in Tibet] is more brutal and inhuman than any other communist regime in the world.”
To enforce its new policy towards Buddhism the state used two main tools, ‘re-education’ groups and the People’s Liberation Army. The ‘Cultural Revolution’ began officially in Tibet on the 25th of August 1966 with the sacking of Tsuglhaklang, or Jokhang, the main cathedral in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. The Cathedral was sacked, razed, and the relics destroyed . In itself this was senseless act, not to mention a cultural atrocity, however unfortunately it was only a spark of things to come.
The relationship between religion and state is undoubtedly worse in Tibet than any other area under PRC control due to the complex relationship of Tibetan Buddhism to the people and government of Tibet. Not only is Tibetan Buddhism perceived as a religion which threatens the state by focusing identity away from the nation as a whole, but also as a major political movement which opposes the occupation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.
In the decades immediately following the invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1950, the government of the newly founded PRC, still lead by Chairman Mao, initially made no strong movies against the Buddhist institution of Tibet. This, however, was not long lasted, as the PRC consolidated their control on Tibet and the occupying forces cracked down hard on Buddhism in Tibet. Across Tibet monasteries were attacked, burnt, and often enough, the occupants slaughtered. There are many stories of monks being forced to shoot the senior monks in the same manner children had been forced to shoot their parents during the invasion. By 1966 it was estimated that 80% of Tibet monasteries had been destroyed. As horrifying and brutal as this period was, what followed was even more so.
The decade of ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966-1967) as declared by then Chairman Mao restructured the People’s Republic of China in all aspects of life. Rooting out and destroying ‘the four olds’, old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits and replacing them with four news, based on Maoist ideas, values, and beliefs . The effects of the Cultural Revolution were felt throughout China as millions were ‘re-educated’ and millions more died, as the ‘four old’ were stamped out. However in Tibet the effects were particular hard hitting.
Where before religion had been controlled, and attacked, it was now outlawed, and the PRC set about waging war on Tibetan Buddhism. Under the ideas of the ‘great proletariat cultural revolution’ Tibetan Buddhism was seen to be a strong hold of the ‘four olds’, and thus something which needed to be destroyed.
Never before, and not since, has the relationship between the government of the PRC and Tibetan Buddhism been so brutally savage as it was during the ‘Cultural Evolution’. Such was the devastation that Alexander Solzehnitsyn commented that “[Chinas rule in Tibet] is more brutal and inhuman than any other communist regime in the world.”
To enforce its new policy towards Buddhism the state used two main tools, ‘re-education’ groups and the People’s Liberation Army. The ‘Cultural Revolution’ began officially in Tibet on the 25th of August 1966 with the sacking of Tsuglhaklang, or Jokhang, the main cathedral in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. The Cathedral was sacked, razed, and the relics destroyed . In itself this was senseless act, not to mention a cultural atrocity, however unfortunately it was only a spark of things to come.
These groups attempted to rout out hundreds of years of values set in Buddhism, and replacing the ideas with ones more favourable to the idea of a socialist workers paradise with Chairman Mao as the great leader. At times the re-education simply consisted of mandatory lectures, however imprisonment, torture, and beatings occurred, in order to install stronger lessons into those who proved unwilling to ‘volunteer’ for re-education. To this day re-education campaigns continue in Tibet especially among the remaining Buddhist institutions.
Along side the states widespread program of re-education the People’s Liberation Army, under the control of the state, conducted a program of destruction and cultural genocide. Following the example set by the attack on the Lhasa cathedral the PLA set upon hundreds of monasteries and nunneries sacking and razing them, and often enough killing the occupants. By 1978, the end of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ of the pre-invasion 2,700 monasteries, only 8 remained . These statistics make it clear that the PRC was at the time conducting a systematic extermination of Tibetan Buddhism.
As the cultural evolution drew to a close in the late 1970’s the state conceded that some level of Tibetan Buddhism would have to exist, and thus took measure to control it. When the PRC took steps to move away from the policy of extermination and towards a policy of control, it once again began to be possible to legally practice religion in Tibet, even if on a restricted scale.
Despite the enormous effort on behalf of the state to crush and control Buddhism in Tibet, it is yet to truly succeed. Tibetan Buddhism is so entrenched in the heart of the Tibetan people that while there is a Tibetan people, there will be Tibetan Buddhism. Despite its past atrocities the PRC has no wish or need to destroy the Tibetan people as they have attempted to destroy their religion and culture.
As is clearly demonstrated by the ‘Cultural Revolution’ the relationship between Tibetan Buddhism and the state of the Peoples Republic of China is one of conflict and control. Communist ideology regards religion as a threat to the revolution, and the Peoples Republic of China as taken steps to control and sometimes eliminate this threat both within China and in the occupied nation of Tibet.
In its efforts to control Buddhism in Tibet, the PRC attempted to first control it, then destroy it. The ‘Cultural Revolution’ represented the height of the PRC campaign to destroy Tibetan Buddhism, however despite their most brutal efforts Tibetan Buddhism continues to exist. Having failed to destroy both Tibetan culture and Religion, things which Tibetan hold as one, the PRC proceeded with a new policy of control towards Tibetan Buddhism. Despite repeated attempts at destruction, and endless efforts at control, Tibetan Buddhism resisted, proving that the Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhism were and are one. A fact that despite many attempts and efforts, the PRC can never change.
Finn Cheshire
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