-------------------------- CanTibNet Newsletter ------------------------ Published by: The Canada-Tibet Committee Editorial Board: Brian Given Nima Dorjee Conrad Richter Tseten Samdup Submissions and subscriptions to: ctn-editors@utcc.utoronto.ca or fax to: +44-71-722-0362 (U.K.) Send us your comments, announcements, news or items for discussion. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ID Issue 94/3/21 GMT 14:15 Complied by Tseten Samdup --------------------------------------------------------------------- Content --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Official Chinese Documents on Restrictions on Number of Monks and Nuns --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: HUMAN RIGHTS DESK Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Secretaiat, Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamsala 176 215, India March 1, 1994 China's State Council (Cabinet) recently issued two series of sweeping new regulations regarding religious activities: one on management of foreign people's religious activities in China and the other on the Management of places of religious activities, according to recent international media reports. The regulations reportedly came into effect on January 31, 1993. In Tibet such regulations have always been in force under Communist Chinese occupation rule. Specific regulations were formulated in concrete terms for ~hat China now calls Tibet Autonomous region (TAR) sometime in 1986 ~hen a 10-Article regulation titled "Provisional Regulations for the Management of Religious Institutions in the TAR" was issued. Article 2 of that regulation specifically stated that "No one shall, without express permission from the concerned government authorities, build or renovate and open, on their own initiative, new places of worship." It also stated that the "government appointed heads concerned with religious affairs are responsible for the conduct of the monks and nuns under their jurisdiction." Article 4 of the regulation established for each monastery and nunnery what was described as a "Democratic Management Committee", with the provision that the Committee must consist of a Zhurin (Chairman), a Deputy Zhurin and some members. It also provided that the total strength of the Committee would depend on the need of the concerned institution and that the Committee must set up sub-committees for religious affairs, production, finance, security and study. Article 5, which specified the duties of the Committee and the sub-committees, provided, per clause 2, that "the monks and nuns. must properly be enrolled in their respective monastic institutions and study the party and government policies and decrees and thereby enhance their comprehension of the ideology of love for the nation on an uninterrupted basis." Clause 3 provided that "no one who is not of the concerned monastery or nunnery and who had not obtained the requisite permission shall be appointed as an abbot, chant master, teacher, etc." Clause 4 imposed a duty on the Committee to foster a band of young religious persons who are patriotic and respect the leadership of the Communist Party and socialism. The duties of the monks and nuns enrolled in the monasteries and nunneries were specified in Article 6. Clause 1 of that Article provided, among other things, that they "must love the socialist motherland and abide by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China." Article 8 of the regulation required the number of monks and nuns enrolled to be fixed. Regarding the types of monks and nuns to be enrolled, the Article provided thus: "Having regard to the actual requirement of the concerned monastic institution and its capacity to fend for them, the specified number of monks or nuns may include those who on their own desire rejoin them after having previously been separated from them on condition, however, that they have undergone some change of attitude and provided further that they already have some degree of religious knowledge. Also, those who are clear about their birth place, those who are patriotic, young and those who are knowledgeable and who by their own desire seek to join the religious institutions may also be admitted. For a specified period of time the newly enrolled monks and nuns shall be under probation and at the end of it those who pass a religious test may, on permission given by the concerned Democratic Management Committee, be admitted as a full-fledged monk or nun of the concerned religious institution." Clause 1 of Article 10, a miscellaneous provision, provided that the national policy on religion must be safeguarded at all times. It read thus: No one shall use religion to carry out campaigns to disturb public order, harm the well being of the members of the public, and cause hindrance to the national public education policy. In September 1987, a much more detailed Test-Regulation, titled as Rules for Democratic Management of Religious Centres in the TAR was issued and implemented, incorporating everything that had contained in the provisional document of the previous year. We are yet to see, if existing, a final version of that regulation. In September 1992, the Sixth Conference of Delegates of the Tibet Branch of the Chinese Buddhist Friendship Association (now rechristened as Bureau of Religious and Nationalities Affairs~ held its meeting. A brief confidential report of the proceeding of a Sub-Committee of Secretaries of that Conference, which has come into our hands, reveal some of the complaints and suggestions put forward by delegates to the conference. They show how under existing policies, especially on restrictions on the number of monks and nuns, the practice of religious freedom is severely affected. The document is in the form of a summary of suggestions put forward by the delegates to the conference. Below is a translation of that report, marked as report number four, and dated 15 September 1992: About the Number of Monks and Nuns The number of monks for the different monasteries in Tibet were earlier fixed disproportionately and adequate attention ~as not paid to the actual requirement of the concerned monasteries by t*e realistic process of seeking truth from facts. As a result many monasteries are now unable to perform their ceremonial rituals, to assume responsibility for protecting their religious properties, to perform death rituals, etc, to the people in surrounding areas, etc. Many such problems have accumulated. One: Each monastery must perform at least three fundamental religious ceremonies in a year. Most monasteries require a teaching hall) a meditation room and a debating hall. At appropriate times, arrangement must be made to enable members of the public to visit the monasteries to do prayers; visits must also be made to the homes of surrounding villagers to perform religious ceremonies such as death rituals. In addition, today, arrangements must be made to receive tourists and no less time must be devoted to work in order to maintain the monasteries in a self-supporting state. However, as at present, the number of monks fixed for must of the monasteries throughout Tibet is from two to fifty. Most of them have the number of monks fixed at less than twenty. As a result it is extremely difficult for them to satisfy the religious needs of the Tibetan people. Ludrub Gyatso, the member from Shigatse Sub-Committee stated thus: "The number of monks fixed for the Sakya monastery is only eighty. The sakya monastery is the main seat of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. A good portion of its precious religious contents have survived the destructions during the Cultural revolution. The responsibility for protecting them is very heavy. In addition, the monastery has many meditation centres and a teaching hall. Apart from these, it has numerous devotee-visitors and tourist visitors. Because of these, it is beyond the reach of the existing strength of the monastery's monks to attend to everything. The result is sometimes temples have to be closed down while at other times teachings have to be stopped; and the monastery is unable to meet the domestic religious needs of the members of the public at large. All these have resulted in heavy criticism of the monastery for alleged shortcomings." It was, therefore, requested that the Sakya monastery be sanctioned a monks strength of at least 200. Tashi Ouril from the Shigatse Sub-Committee submitted: "At the Ryirong Phagpa Ling Gonpa I am the only monk. The place is notorious for robbers and thiefs. There had been cases in which bandits committed murders in the area. It is assured that if I should die all the contents of the monastery will get dissipated either due to destruction or loss. I was able to come to this meeting only after asking someone to look after the monastery during my absence." Sherab Tenzin from the Shigatse Prefecture submitted: "It is difficult for the monasteries to be self-supporting with a very limited number of monks. Let me give you the example of Ralag Yungdrung Ling Gonpa. It has planted many fruit trees. In order to work the land and take charge of business activities manpower is needed. If our monastery is to be sanctioned a monk-strength of one hundred I can assure you, upon my responsibility, that it will be entirely self-supporting." The delegates of Ngari stated in the meeting: "Most of the monasteries in Ngari do not have even a single monk and members of the local populace take turns to act as care-takers. Though in a few cases there are one or two monks or nuns they are all of very advanced age. An example may be given of the situation in Thoding Gonpa, a monastery of immense historic importance with large number of precious artifacts. Even this monastery has, to date, only four senile monks and no young novice. Ours is a border area infested with thiefs and robbers and traders. Given the present strength of monks and nuns it is very difficult to perform even routine religious services. Not only that, it is not possible to take responsibility for safeguarding the monasteries' religious object and precious artifacts." At the meeting, large number of delegates from Monasteries and nunneries having one or two monks or nuns or those with monks or nuns strength just above ten made a number of submissions to state that because of inadequate number of monks or nuns they are not able to fulfil many of their routine activities. What has been stated above are only a few examples. Two: About the fixation of number of monks in monasteries over a period of several years and their review and ascertainment by the Socialist Re-education Work Inspection Teams and the concerned Religious Affairs Brigades 1. In one category of areas, such as Ngari, though the number of monks and nuns had been ascertained and the ceilings thereof fixed, some monasteries and nunneries have still only one or two monks or nuns or none at all. This is because at the time of renovating or re-opening attention was not properly paid to correlating policy and the plan of implementation thereof. 2. In most areas, the ceiling of monks and nuns had been fixed unduly low. The result of this is that not only are the monasteries and the nunneries not able to carry out their routine religious services, for want of the requisite number of monks and nuns, but also even monastic security could not be ensured. 3. In one category of monasteries and nunneries, though the ceiling on the number of monks and nuns fixed had not been attained, in most areas orders had been issued not to admit new monks and nuns following the disturbances in Lhasa. As a result the previously fixed ceilings could not be implemented successfully. 4. Though before fixation of ceilings on the number of monks and nuns there had been some monks and nuns who had already received the Getsul initiation they were expelled even though they numbered only three or four in excess of the officially fixed ceiling. There would be no cause for any difference of opinion if those expelled had violated some secular legal or religious canonical rules. But to pick out a few from amongst a community of equals for expulsion presents a number of contradictions and difficulty of taking decision. 5. In a category of slightly larger monasteries and nunneries the number of monks or nuns already on the roll exceeded the official ceiling fixed later on br few numbers. For example, take the case of monasteries or nunneries in which the original numbers of monks or nuns were slightly more or less than one hundred. How one is to go about enforcing the ceiling with any degree of appropriateness is a dilemma with no clear-cub guidance for resolution. 6. Ralag Yungdrung Gonpa had been fixed a monks-ceiling of fifty whereas the actual number on its rolls is about seventy. Most of them are Tibetans from other provinces. It had been the time-honoured tradition in the past for Tibetans in other provinces to come to this monastery to enrol in it for studying. There are other monasteries too whose situation resemble this. The difficulty in regard to them is that there is no clear provision in the guidelines to determine whether such monks have to be treated as being properly on the rolls of the concerned monasteries. 7. Unlike in the old society, today Tibetans enter the monastic order, to become monks and nuns, by their own free will and out of personal interest. Speaking from the point of view of the general masses it is a matter of freedom of religion. Speaking from the point of view of the monastic institutions it is a matter of many things such as their care and maintenance, and being self-supporting. But because of strict enforcement of the rule on ceilings, the number of monks and nuns amongst the members of the public is increasing considerably. There is no one to teach and guide them properly. Many among them are therefore seen to indulge in indiscretionary conducts, thereby bringing bad name to the religious institutions and the character of monks and nuns in general. Not only that, it also disturbs the public order. Three: Some matters pertaining to the announcement af the population of monks and nuns throughout TAR Though over a period of several years no new monks and nuns had been admitted to monasteries and nunneries in TAR, their number recorded by the various religious institutions that stated by leaders in their speeches, that written in newspapers, etc. show wide divergence. The main reasons for this are: 1. Some monks and nuns are counted thrice. These are people who had received their ordination for one monastery or nunnery but ordinarily spent their time on their farmland or pastoral area in routine secular occupation. These monks and nuns join their monastery or nunnery, in which they had received their ordination, when there is relatively little work on the land or pasture and are, hence, counted there. On occasions of important religious festivals, however, they join the monks and nuns of a nearby monastery or nunnery in prayer services where again they are counted. Some times they go for retreat and join hermitages for short term meditations. They are again counted with the monks. and nuns of the hermitage. Thus one person is counted three times. 2. There is a category of monasteries and nunneries in Tibet in which both monks and nuns as well as lay people participate in religious services. Often, the members of the laity have physical appearance of monks and nuns. Majority of these villagers and nomads from a particular village or several villages and pastoral areas have also been included among the monk and nun population of Tibet. 3. With Chamdo as the main, in several parts of Tibet there has traditionally been a category of people usually engaged in farming, pastoral or business occupations who have the appearance of monks. These people sometimes participate in religious services in their nearby monastery. On such occasions, they too had been counted among the monk population of these monasteries. 4. In many parts of Tibet there are a large number of people who had been disrobed as monks and nuns at various points of time. These forever monks and nuns when voluntarily taking part in the renovation of their old monasteries and nunneries have also been counted as monks and nuns. 5. Because of the above stated reasons the echelon of religious affairs offices and the authorities concerned with monastic affairs do not have a definite criteria for determining the number of monks and nuns. Not only that, even the concerned monasteries and nunneries themselves do not know for sure whom to count in and whom to exclude. Over a period of several days during.which we have been sitting in meeting the majority of the delegates expressed their views on a large number of causes for discrepancies between the officially fixed ceiling on the number of monks and nuns for the monasteries and nunneries and the actual circumstance in which they have to be implemented. These have not been brought out in this report in any detail. But the heart of the matter concerning their complaints is that while there is a definite need for fixing limit on the number of monks and nuns - for without it their population would be too much to manage for purpose of their proper education and also the monasteries and the nunneries could not be self supporting - if their number is too less the customary religious services and ceremonies could not be performed and responsibility could not be properly assessed for maintenance of monastic security and protection of religious objects and precious artifacts. Besides, the monasteries and the nunneries could not be self-supporting. These are the complaints. Other relevant views had also been expressed concerning the affairs of monasteries and nunneries and monks and nuns in recent years, plans for monasteries and nunneries to be self-supporting and the matters concerning recognition of tulkus. These will be compiled and published serially in due course of time. (On this the fifteenth day of this month, the delegates had been divided into groups to visit Sera, Drepung and Gaden monasteries, and to made offerings and do prayers.) The foregoing document contained, as is obvious, complaints about onerous restrictions on religious freedom. They are complaints made by none other than trusted Chinese government appointed officials. The report, marked as confidential, has also been brought out by a Chinese government agency. None of the suggestions and complaints put forward by the delegates had, however, been seen to be implemented. Recent announcement by Beijing about increased restriction on religious freedom show that the official control has, in fact, been tightened. Another document relating to religious freedom in Tibet that has come to our knowledge is Document number 27 of 1992 issued by the Purang (Chinese: Burang) County s United Front Department, in Ngari Prefecture. This document implements a reported 1992 Document number 10 of the area Communist Party and Government. The document is stated as being a regulation to implement the regional government's directive for "Area-wise Fixing of the Number of Monks in Monasteries and their Assets for Productive Efforts". A detailed table of monasteries and their sanctioned ceiling of monks, and other things, prepared by the Purang County s United Front, dated 24 July 1992, is worth mentioning. The table lists twelve officially approved monasteries located within the county. Khorchag, a Sakya Monastery, is the largest with a sanctioned monks-strength of eighteen against the existing strength of nineteen. This meant one of the nineteen had to be selected for expulsion. Gyangdrag Gonpa, a Kargyu monastery, which had an existing monk population of fourteen was sanctioned only six. More than half the strength had, therefore, to be expelled. Four monasteries with one, five, five, and six had their original strength maintained. Zutrulphug, a Kargyu Monastery, was the only one which had been sanctioned more than it already had: It was increased from one to four. The rest all had their number of monks reduced. Only three monasteries are shown to be permitted to hold land of given fixed areas. Two monasteries are shown to be permitted to own one vehicle each. Six monasteries are shown to be permitted to own one shop each. Except for the one monastery with only one monk all are allowed to own animal herds, ranging from two for Gungphug Lhagang, a Kargyu Gonpa, to one hundred and twenty for the Kargyu monasteries of Serwalung, Jiwugon and Gyangdrag and the gelug monastery of Truego. HUMAN RIGHTS DESK March 1, 1994 ============================================================================= --- GoldED 2.41+/#1067 * Origin: BODY DHARMA * Moderator, TIBET_NEWS - DharmaNet (96:101/33)