Tibetan Monastery Faced With Closure

A Tibetan monastery has been threatened with closure after the arrests of four of its monks for shouting slogans against Chinese rule, a monitoring group says.

Buddhist monks were confined to Taglung Drag monastery near Lhasa for a month after the arrests last year, the Tibet Information Network said in a news release.

Obligatory political study by the monks was also increased and monks were threatened with expulsion and the closure of the monastery unless they denounced the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the group said.

In response, 16 of the monastery’s 26 remaining monks left in September, the group said.

The crackdown came after monks Phuntsog Legmon, 18, and Namdrol, 24, were sentenced to three and four years respectively for shouting pro-independence slogans in Lhasa in March 1999, the center said, adding that the two were severely beaten while in detention.

Buddhist clergy have often played a leading role in Tibetan opposition to Chinese rule. Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1949, saying that the western region had been a part of China for centuries.

Opponents of Chinese rule say Tibet was effectively independent for most of that time, and accuse China of suppressing Tibetan religion and trying to dilute its native culture.