28. Dec 2009
China bans annual religious event in Barkham County
(Phayul) The authorities in Barkham (Chin: Ma'erkang) county in Ngaba (Chin: Aba) TAP, Sichuan province have imposed a ban on an annual religious congregation of Tibetan monks and warned of arrests or closure of the host monastery if they went ahead with the event, according to a statement issued by the Emergency Coordination Committee of Kirti monastery in Dharamsala. The third annual winter session on 'Valid Cognition', (Sansk: Pramana; Tib: Tsema) was to be held at Gyalrong Kirti Tsodhun monastery in the eleventh month of the Tibetan lunar calendar. The month-long religious event usually draws monks from over fifty monasteries in the regions traditionally known to Tibetans as Amdo and Kham. The congregation was first held in 2007 at Tagtsang Lhamo Kirti monastery in the county. It was at that time decided that the four major Kirti Tsang monasteries in the county, namely Tagtsang Lhamo Kirti, Ngaba Kirti, Tsodhun Kirti and Hortsang Kirti, would take turns to host the event. When it was held in 2008 at Ngaba Kirti monastery, the authorities imposed severe restrictions, sealing the monastery and preventing monks and devotees from other areas joining in.