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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.
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Finn Cheshire
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sherilyn | May 13th, 2002
without more info i can only make one minor objection, and that is that you can't define the relationship between two countries just on the events of one historical period- look at Germany.
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