Tibetan Buddhism is the religion of 99 percent of the Tibetan people. Discussion of the Tibetan situation is confused by the situation which has existed since the Chinese occupation of formerly independent Tibet in 1949 and its subsequent inclusion in the People’s Republic of China.
Prior to 1949, Tibet included almost all of the Tibetan plateau having a territory of about 2.5 million square kilometers. The independent country of Tibet included three provinces: U’Tsang, Kham, and Ando. In 1949, the Chinese renamed the two eastern provinces of Ando and Kham and integrated them into China as the province of Qinhai and parts of Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan. The province of U’Tsang became the Tibet Autonomous Region. When China refers to Tibet, it is referring to the Tibet Autonomous Region. When the Tibetan government in exile refers to Tibet, it is generally referring to the original three regions of Tibet or "Greater Tibet."
The situation is further complicated because the Chinese government has settled many Chinese from other provinces into the former Tibetan provinces. Some estimates of resettled Chinese run as high as 7.5 million people. Since the late 1950’s Chinese has been the official language of Tibet.
For over 300 years, from the coronation of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama in 1642 until the Chinese takeover in 1951, Tibet was governed by a bureaucracy of trained monks. The Dalai Lama was the head of the government. Popular Buddhist millenarianism combining Maitreya Buddhism, ideas of the reincarnation of Lokeshvara, and Shambala prophecy was the basis of this monastic Buddhist state. Thus Tibetan Buddhism is integrally intertwined with traditional Tibetan nationalism. On March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama, followed by 100,000 refugees sought asylum in India where he established the Tibetan Government in Exile.
China claimed that Tibet was historically a part of China and that they were liberating Tibet from "medieval feudal serfdom" and "slavery." The communist government has sought to inculcate in the Tibetan people a sense of identity with the Chinese nation based upon the ideology of communism. Repression of Tibetan Buddhism was particularly severe in the years following 1959. More than six thousand monasteries, temples and other cultural sites were destroyed. Many suffered sever hardship and torture in prisons, labor brigades and camps. It is estimated that 1.2 million Tibetan people died under a regime which Alexander Solzhenytsin described as "more brutal and inhumane than any other communist regime in the world."
In the post-Mao years of the 1980’s, the situation began to improve and the Tibetan people began to rebuild some of the Temples and monasteries. By the late 1980’s however, as monks and nuns began to stage protests against the Chinese government, Chinese authorities have exercised increasing control over Buddhist institutions and have been particularly severe in cracking down on incursions within Tibetan Buddhism of what they define as the "Dalai Clique." Following the death of the second most important leader in Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama, a conflict ensued in which the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government have each chosen a successor.
The official Chinese government position, as expressed in their "White Paper - Freedom of Religious Belief in China," published in October 1997 is:
Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, and particularly since the introduction of the reform and opening policies of 1979, citizens’ right to freedom of religious belief has been thoroughly carried out in Tibet.
In fact, the communist authorities try to maintain strict control over all religious activities in Tibet. In 1986, the Provisional Regulations for the Management of Religious Institutions in the Tibet Autonomous Region established Democratic Management Committees for each monastery and nunnery. These committees were empowered to regulate religious affairs, production, finance, security, and study. All persons admitted to a religious life must first be approved by secular authorities. The party also approves the appointment of any leaders and teachers and oversees their work. A November 1994, directive from the CCP Propaganda Department entitled "The Golden Bridge to Reach the New Era" declared that all monastery and temple construction must stop. A cap was placed on the number of monks and nuns. This was a part of a patriotic education campaign aimed at eradicating "splittism" amongst monks and nuns.
In December 1996, authorities began new crackdown on religion in Tibet codenamed "Strike Hard." Strike Hard, ostensibly an anti-crime campaign, endeavors to have Tibetans denounce the Dalai Lama, pledge allegiance to the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama, oppose independence for Tibet, and promise to work for the unity of the Chinese motherland. Monks and nuns have been told that if they will criticize the Dalai Lama they will be okay, but if they refuse, they are arrested and their monasteries or nunneries are closed. As a result thousands of monks and nuns have been fleeing to India. A news report from New Delhi, October 28, 1998 states that refugee arrivals from Tibet have increased tenfold in the month of October.
Also, towards the end of 1998, the government began to force the retirement of monks over 60 years of age in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Quinhai, seriously affecting the transmission of Buddhist doctrine. Furthermore, the government has recently been placing increased pressure on parents who have sent their children to India to be educated in schools run by the Dalai Lama to have them returned to Tibet.
The December 15, 1998 edition of the Tibet Daily published the text of a speech by the communist party’s deputy secretary, Raidi, in Tibet. In his speech, Raidi pledged to eliminate "disturbances and ignorance." He accused the Dalai Lama of being a "tool of international anti-Chinese forces" and vowed to "sweep the Dalai Lama’s prestige to the ground."
Ironically, this has been occurring in the wake of President Clinton’s widely publicized trip to China in June of last year in which President Clinton spoke out publicly for religious freedom and discussed the issue of Tibet in a joint press conference with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. These events raised hopes for discussions between President Zemin and the Dalai Lama seeking a more peaceful resolution of Tibet’s future. During President Clinton’s visit, Jiang said that the "door to dialogue and negotiations is open," but only if the Dalai Lama acknowledges that Tibet is an inseparable part of China and that Taiwan is a province of China. It remains to be seen if an accommodation can be reached to allow such talks.
2003 U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom report on China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong and Macau)
Tibetan Buddhism Clashes
With Govt. Limits WorldWide Religious News 8/16/04