Tension Erupts During Lhasa’s Great Prayer Festival : In Tibet, It’s Butter Sculpture and Bitter Words

A maroon-robed monk, debating a master theologian in the courtyard of Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple, clapped his hands sharply and stomped one foot in an ancient ritual gesture of emphasis.

The master, reflecting a lightheartedness that is one aspect of Tibetan Buddhism, responded with a wisecrack about Aktembar, a legendary storyteller who became a Robin Hood-style figure by tricking the rich to help the poor. The joke sent a ripple of appreciative laughter through the assembly of about 1,000 monks, gathered for the 11-day “Great Prayer Festival,” Tibetan Buddhism’s most important annual celebration, which concluded this weekend.

Started in 1409 to commemorate the victory of the Buddha himself in debate with six anti-Buddhist lords, the festival--known in Tibetan as Monlam Chenmo--has been held this year against a background of extreme tension.

The tension erupted briefly into violence Saturday when Tibetans assaulted a police station in Lhasa, attacked police and destroyed some vehicles, according to an account by the official New China News Agency. Also assaulted was an office of the Tibetan Buddhist Assn., which is controlled by Chinese and is considered by many Tibetans to be a barrier to their goal of independence from China.

“The situation was soon brought under control,” the news agency said.

Troops Cruise Streets

During the festival, truckloads of Chinese soldiers armed with submachine guns occasionally cruised the streets of the Tibetan capital. They did so less often, however, than during the weeks immediately after a day of anti-Chinese rioting was bloodily suppressed last fall. Between seven and 14 people died in that Oct. 1 incident when police fired on the rioters, according to Western news reports based on statements by foreign witnesses.

Plainclothes police, whose presence was obvious in the neighborhood of the Jokhang Temple during the festival, were armed with concealed handguns, monks said.

“There are many spies in the temples,” an English-speaking monk said to a reporter who slipped away from his government-supplied guide. “Police and soldiers are everywhere.”

About 1,000 uniformed police and what appeared to be at least an equal number of plainclothes police enforced tight security and crowd control measures during the festival’s high point Thursday evening, when about 5,000 pilgrims and worshipers came to the Jokhang area for the butter sculpture and butter lamp celebration.

Angry Monks Stay Away

The official New China News Agency reported in mid-February that “more than 2,300” monks would gather in Lhasa for the festival. But only about half that number actually attended. Monks told Western reporters that hundreds of monks boycotted the celebrations out of anger toward the Chinese and because they believe that China is trying to use the event to promote a false image of religious freedom in Tibet.

Other monks and many pilgrims, however, appear to be glad that the important festival, which was revived only two years ago after being suppressed for two decades, was held at all.

“Many monks are angry at the Chinese,” said a monk in his 20s who was at the Jokhang Temple. “But still I am happy to go to the festival.”

Officials of the state-approved Buddhist Society of Tibet, speaking at a press conference for the only three foreign reporters allowed into Lhasa to cover the event, insisted that there has been no boycott.

‘People Are a Bit Uneasy’

“Last year, we had some trouble in Lhasa,” said Lopsam Tianzan, a vice president of the society, referring to the events of Oct. 1. “Because of this trouble, many people are a bit uneasy. They don’t know what will be the outcome of the Great Prayer Festival--whether it will be successful or not. So that’s why some people come and some people do not come.”

Troumelin, another vice president of the Buddhist Society who is acting as abbot for this year’s celebration, explained that Tsong Khapa, founder of the “Yellow Hat” sect of Tibetan Buddhism, initiated the festival in 1409.

“The purpose is that during this Great Prayer Festival, many offerings are made for the welfare of all suffering beings, so that everything can be well for all,” Troumelin said.

In the late 15th Century, the festival was stopped for a period because of struggles between different sects of Tibetan Buddhism. But it was revived and carried on until 1966 when China’s decade-long Cultural Revolution began and the festival was banned, Troumelin said. “During the Cultural Revolution, of course, much damage was done to the monasteries and religious images and so on,” he added.

The festival was revived in 1986, 10 years after the Cultural Revolution ended. But the monasteries themselves are no longer fully in charge.

“Since 1986, under the care of the Communist Party and the care of the government, the prayer festival was revived again,” Troumelin said.

Control Resented

Many monks from the three great monasteries of Sera, Drepung and Ganden, which are located outside of Lhasa and suffered great damage during the Cultural Revolution, deeply resent this party and governmental control.

The tensions in Tibet have their roots in history. Over the centuries, Tibet has sometimes been part of China and sometimes independent. China has firmly controlled the region since 1951.

Within the confines of government restrictions and a ban on advocacy of Tibetan independence, the festival can be seen as part of a limited revival of Tibetan Buddhism.

Some of the scriptural debates that are part of the festival have been held in the central courtyard of the Jokhang Temple, Tibet’s holiest site, which is in downtown Lhasa. Others take place outside the temple, in a square that opens onto Barkhor Street, which encircles the Jokhang. These outside sessions were attended last week by crowds of hundreds of pilgrims, many of them yak herders from the countryside. The men were usually dressed in sheepskin jackets or short black wool robes, while the women wore long black robes and colorful aprons.

The maroon-robed monks also spent many hours sitting cross-legged on the stone pavement of the temple courtyard, chanting passages from the Buddhist scriptures. Yak-butter lamps burned on long tables along the walls, giving a heavy, almost rancid smell to the air.

Flanked by Photos

In the Jokhang’s inner shrine is an ancient jewel-encrusted golden Buddha image. It is flanked by photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s former theocratic ruler who has lived in Indian exile since an abortive 1959 anti-Chinese rebellion, and the Panchen Lama, the second-ranking leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who lives in Beijing.

Pilgrims who could afford to make hefty donations to the celebrations--usually about $30, roughly equal to a month’s salary for an urban worker--were allowed inside the temple, where they received blessings from the leading monks and worshiped before the Buddha images.

The focus of activities shifted Thursday to Barkhor Street, for the festival’s biggest event, the butter-sculpture and butter-lamp celebration.

There were moments of conflict early Thursday evening as the police cordoned off the entire street. At one point, a group of about 75 pilgrims broke through police lines, knocking over some officers. Some worshipers also fell. Less than an hour later, a Tibetan man was arrested at the same location, apparently for trying to break through the police lines. A Chinese policeman was later led off with his head bandaged.

Majority Acceptance

The vast majority of worshipers, however, accepted the control measures. Early Thursday evening, there was some resentment that the police were not permitting repeated circling of the temple, which is a form of worship or prayer in Tibetan Buddhism. But about 10 p.m., controls were relaxed. The roughly 5,000 pilgrims and other worshipers, generally in a festive mood, then began walking along Barkhor Street clockwise around the temple, continuing this activity late into the night.

Thursday evening’s celebration was centered on Buddhist sculptures made of colored yak butter and mounted on wooden boards set up to rise 35 to 50 feet in the air at four places around the Jokhang Temple.

The main sculpture at the front of the temple showed founder Tsong Khapa, dressed in a golden robe and with his hands in a gesture of teaching. Mounted to the sides of Tsong Khapa were two 8-foot-long yak butter dragons, symbols of good fortune, with blue-tipped white horns, red noses, bulging white-and-black eyes and golden-edged green body scales made with real gold leaf. Set out on long tables beneath the butter sculptures were hundreds of lamps made with burning wicks set in metal bowls of yak butter.

Profound Tradition

“I came to see the butter sculptures,” Jumayangjung, a middle-aged woman from Lhasa who visited the Jokhang on Thursday, said as her husband quietly spun a hand-held Tibetan prayer wheel. “They are very beautiful, and this tradition is very profound.”

Such visually spectacular art, together with pageantry and the deeper teachings of the faith are all part of the enduring appeal of Buddhism to the Tibetan people.

“When we were growing up, we heard old people talk about the Great Prayer Festival,” said Gesantsuwan, 31, a performer with Lhasa’s traditional Tibetan Opera Troupe who visited the temple during the celebrations. “Now we can see it for ourselves.”