Authenticating Tibet : answers to China's 100 Questions by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Human rights
Publisher: Berkeley : University of California Press
Published: 2008-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Questions / 171

most important monasteries after the 1959 uprising. Their role is defined in the "Regulations for the Democratic Administration of Temples" promulgated by the People's Congress of the TAR and regularly updated. Originally, their members were chosen from the monks of the "poor" class. Nowadays, depending on the monastery, the community elects them, or some members are elected and others are nominated by the Bureau of Religious Affairs. In several committees, former monks who married during the Cultural Revolution play an important role, but their presence and that of their families is problematic for the monastic community. The smallest monasteries had no committee; instead, someone designated by the local authorities acted as their liaison agent (ICT 1990: 25).

In the Chinese answer, it is easy to read between the lines that, in fact, these committees control the monasteries. Their assigned duties are rather vaguely described here; in fact, they are substitutes for the classic administration of monasteries, which dealt with such matters as curriculum, ritual calendar, acceptance of postulants, and so on. They also manage the buildings and finance (what 200 Questions calls "production" is the remunerated work now demanded from the monks who do not follow the program of studies; see also Question 54). The testimony of monks who fled Tibet describes the strong role of the police on those committees and of the mistrust they often inspire in the monastic community. They are more or less repressive, depending on the monastery and local administration: Forbidden Freedoms illustrates this variation of attitudes through the examples of four monasteries, Drepung, Sera, Ganden, and Shelkar (ICT 1990: 27-30). Goldstein's study on Drepung {1998) clearly describes the daily activity of the committee, but does not mention any mistrust of the monks, contrary to Forbidden Freedoms, a further sign of the difficulty of obtaining reliable information on Tibet.

One can infer, however, that the committees control the list of monks registered in the monastery and are ready to report the unregistered at the slightest provocation. They also help organize sessions of political education and control of the monks' "correct" thoughts; those sessions are led by "work teams" composed of civil servants and cadres (including researchers from the Academy of Social Sciences) whenever troubles arise or upon the launching of a political campaign. The democratic administrative committees are under the direct jurisdiction of the local branch of the Bureau of Religious Affairs, which pays their members. They must present a report to the bureau and follow its directives, and they also submit requests to enter the monastery to the bureau.

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