The U.S. government Thursday urged China to stop interfering with Tibetan religious freedom after sources in eastern Tibet told Radio Free Asia that Chinese authorities began demolishing monks’ quarters at a monastery there.

Authorities on Oct. 25 and 26 began demolishing about 200 monks’ residences at Dza Sershul Thekchen Dargyeling Monastery in Sershul County in the Kardze (Ganzi in Chinese) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, sources there told RFA, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Everything is over now,” the source said. “We are losing everything.”

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFA on Thursday that the demolitions in Sershul reflect broader Chinese government efforts to bring spiritual institutions, religious education, and monastic life under government control.

“We call on Beijing to end its interference in Tibetan religious life,” the spokesperson said. “Tibetan Buddhists should have the right to practice their faith freely, educate their clergy and choose their religious leaders, including the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, without government interference,” the spokesperson said, referring to Beijing’s past and likely future interference with the established succession customs of the two most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.

The demolition in Sershul is not isolated, but part of a larger campaign to reduce monk populations at Tibetan religious institutions. RFA reported in August that authorities resumed demolition of the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy. Activists noted the timing – China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law – had just come into effect the previous month.

The law focuses on reshaping ethnic identity, changing the legal framework around language, expanding state oversight of religion, and extending the law’s reach beyond China’s border.

tibet-china-monastery-demolition Dza Sershul Thekchen Dargyeling Monastery in an undated photo. (Citizen photo)

The source in Tibet said that authorities are planning further restrictions that would prevent monks from staying at the monastery after the demolitions.

“Tibetan religion and culture are being destroyed,” the source told RFA, adding that there is little recourse for those opposed to the demolitions.

“No matter how much local people speak out, the authorities do not listen,” the source said. “They do not remember, they ignore us. We have no solutions and we don’t know what will happen.”

RFA contacted the relevant county-level officials in Sershul for comment, but the official who answered the phone did not respond to RFA’s questions and hung up.

Promoting “ethnic unity”

The demolitions and reductions of the monk population are clearly intended to assimilate Tibetans so that they accept Chinese identity, Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson for the Central Tibetan Administration, or CTA, the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, India, told RFA.

“This is a mask used by the Chinese government under the recently enacted Ethnic Unity Law to assimilate Tibetans and destroy Tibetan religion, culture, and language,” he said. “This is not the first time. We have also seen young monks forcibly expelled from monasteries and sent to China’s colonial boarding schools.”

Though Beijing claims the boarding schools are aimed at providing education to a scattered population, critics have noted that their actual goal is assimilation.

“We strongly condemn the Chinese government’s continued attempts to shut down monasteries and schools established by Tibetans while claiming its authority over Tibet and seeking to eradicate Tibetan national identity,” Tenzin Lekshay said. “It is time for the Chinese government to acknowledge and trust that Tibetan religion and culture are beneficial to China and the world and that the destruction of Tibetan religion and culture will have negative consequences for both China and the world.”

He said that the Chinese government’s actions, which violate international law, would undermine Beijing’s ambition to establish itself as a global leader.

tibet-china-monastery-demolition The entrance to Dza Sershul Thekchen Dargyeling Monastery in an undated photo. (Citizen photo)

Tibetan monasteries are central to preserving Tibetan culture and religious identity, Sangay Kyab, Chinese liaison officer at the Tibet Bureau, the CTA’s representative office in Geneva, Switzerland, told RFA.

“Tibetan culture and religion are central to the identity of the Tibetan people. China’s policy and goal is to destroy everything that keeps Tibet alive,” he said. “Since China invaded Tibet, there have been successive campaigns against Tibetan monasteries, often under the pretext of reforming them.”

He explained how monks and nuns are subjected to political education aimed at making monasteries conform to the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology.

“The main goal is to restrict the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism and undermine the Tibetan people’s ability to unite,” he said. “The incident at the monastery is connected to the Chinese government’s broader policies toward Tibet, and there is a risk that similar incidents could occur elsewhere,” he said.

Restrictions in Tibet threaten Tibetan Buddhist heritage, warned the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan U.S. government commission that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the U.S. government.

“Demolition of Tibetan monasteries is just one tactic in a wider effort by Chinese authorities to sever the people of Tibet from their Tibetan Buddhist heritage, including the forced assimilation of ethnic minorities through the draconian ‘Ethnic Unity’ law that came into effect in July,” commission chair Asif Mahmood told RFA.

He cited the resumption of demolition at Larung Gar in Sichuan province in July as another example of restrictions on Tibetan Buddhist religious freedom.

“Buddhist monks in these circumstances have faced persistent threats of harassment, expulsion from their monasteries, imprisonment, and worse,” he said.

China is trying to destroy Tibetan Buddhism at its roots, Bhuchung K. Tsering, head of the Research and Monitoring Unit at the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, told RFA.

“Monasteries across Tibet are required to follow the orders of the Chinese Communist Party and serve its objectives,” he said. “The Chinese government claims that Tibetans enjoy freedom of religion, but the reality is the opposite of its claims that it is promoting Tibetan Buddhism,” he added.

Translation and additional reporting by Tenzin Dickyi, edited by Tawang for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Eugene Whong for RFA English.