CHINESE AUTHORITIES recently allowed Tibetans in Drango, in Sichuan province, to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday with a prayer ceremony and to display images of the Tibetan religious leader, a Tibetan advocacy group reported yesterday.
Permission to display images of the Nobel laureate in China is unusual, as any attempt to publicly mark the Dalai Lama’s July 6th birthday is generally banned. Monks will secretly whisper his name as they pass foreign visitors by, or show hidden images, but public displays of worship for the leader are forbidden.
Citing local sources, the International Campaign for Tibet said monks, nuns and lay people were allowed to chant together at Drango monastery in Kardze, known as Luohuo in Chinese, to mark the leader’s 74th birthday. One “work team” of five or six government officials who visited the area even brought pictures of the Dalai Lama for local people.
The officials praised the Dalai Lama, confusing the villagers who had undergone a campaign of “patriotic re-education” after the protests in March last year in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas.
During those demonstrations, Tibetans said monks, nuns and lay people were fired upon by security police when they held a peaceful protest.
There was speculation among Tibetans that the move was a “temporary tactic” to keep a lid on unrest in Tibetan areas ahead of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on October 1st.
