29. Nov 2005
Protests and arrests over 'patriotic education' at Drepung monastery
Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials took a senior monk, Khenpo Ngawang Phelgyal, and four colleagues into custody on 23 November 2005 at Drepung monastery in Lhasa, Radio Free Asia (RFA) sources inside China reported. Another arrested monk was named as Ngawang Namdrol. The other three were not identified by name but were said to be natives of Shigatse, Lhoka, and Lhasa. Chinese security officials also secured the monastery, stopping all incoming and outgoing traffic, according to RFA. The action comes amid a renewed 'patriotic education' campaign in recent months aimed at boosting support inside monasteries for the Chinese government. "During the course of the patriotic education campaigns in Drepung monastery, the Chinese officials insisted on the monks condemning the Dalai Lama and opposing separatists", one source said. "But Khenpo Ngawang Phelgyal and other monks in Drepung refused to comply". Two days later, as many as 400 monks from Drepung monastery staged a rare protest in which they gathered at the courtyard of the monastery's main temple and sat in silence, sources said. PSB officials threatened to remove them by force, the sources said. "No devotees are allowed to go inside and no monks were allowed to move out of the monastery. There were several Chinese soldiers inside and around Drepung monastery", said one source. The five monks were expelled from the monastery and handed over to the PSB detention centres in their respective places of origin.