Following reports that monks in a Tibetan area of Sichuan staged a protest over the weekend, authorities are now saying the participants were in fact celebrating a new administrator at their monastery. From Reuters:
Shi Jun, Communist Party boss in an ethnically Tibetan part of western Sichuan province, said there is complete religious freedom in his area and foreign news reports had misrepresented a simple celebration, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
“Having elected a lama to the post of a monastery administrator … lamas with the Se Monastery were overjoyed and congratulated the electee on his success,” Shi told Xinhua. Overseas Tibetans and some Buddhists call the monastery Sey.
Violent rioting rocked Aba Prefecture, where Shi holds office, last year and discontent appeared to resurface last week when a young monk set himself on fire in the street on Friday.
From the Xinhua report:
“Having elected a lama to the post of a monastery administrator, known as “tiebang lama”, which is literally translated as ‘iron-rod lama’, Sunday, lamas with the Se Monastery were overjoyed and congratulated the electee on his success,” the official recounted.
[…] “This was a normal religious activity but had been distorted as ‘Tibetan lamas protest’ by some foreign media with ulterior motives, we are indignant toward the distorted news reports based on hearsays and are disappointed at those western media which have long touted they are observing ‘objectivity and fairness’ in news reporting”, said Shi.
Some local residents also said they did not hear or see any lama protest on Sunday.
