close ties in the past with the monk leaders of the Pyu Saw Htee group in Sagaing– Wah Thawa, Wira Raza and Pandita. ” Now they are taking weapons training for killing others. Learning and holding weapons how to shoot is totally unsuitable for our religion.” Ultranationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu was charged by the deposed
A leading Chinese official in Tibet checked out abbeys in and near the Tibetan capital Lhasa this week to caution monks against behavior thought about disloyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, state media sources said. Wang Junzheng, celebration secretary in the Tibet Autonomous Region, went on Thursday to the Ramoche temple in Lhasa and
A Chinese police surveillance unit is running, apparently for the very first time, inside a Buddhist monastery as part of a restored crackdown on Tibetan Buddhist spiritual organizations, a Tibetan with knowledge of the situation said. Officers were installed this year at the Palyul Thartang Gonchen Monastery in Qinghai provinces Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo) Tibetan
Eleven Tibetans beaten and jailed by Chinese authorities in January for spreading news of the damage of a 99-foot-tall Buddha statue and lots of prayer wheels in southwestern Chinas Sichuan province have actually been sent out to labor camps in the region, Tibetans with knowledge of the scenario said Friday. Monks Tashi Dorjee, Tsering Samdup,
