China micromanages Tibet, floods it with money to woo locals

[rug]

Wednesday, Sep 30, 2015 04:15 AM EDT
Aritz Parra, Associated Press

LHASA, China (AP) — Ji Yunpeng misses hotpot dinners with his wife and daughter back in Beijing and fights insomnia caused by the high altitude in the Tibetan capital by playing computer games, and, occasionally, studying Tibetan Buddhism.

“It’s just out of pure intellectual curiosity,” he said, aware that genuine religious interest would be a breach of discipline in China’s nominally atheist Communist Party.

- snip -

The party in the past installed “special working groups” at Tibet’s county levels to ensure patriotism. Those groups now have been extended to every village and every monastery, exercising an unprecedented level of control while also funneling money and resources to groups who cooperate.

In Lhoka’s Tradruk monastery, the secular management office has obtained funds for the latest renovation of this 12-century-old institution, one of the earliest Buddhist constructions in Tibet. As Han Chinese workers placed the last slate slabs in a courtyard, congregation head Migmar Tsering explained how the monastery can get electricity, televisions and libraries in exchange for displaying the Communist leaders’ portraits and topping the complex with the red flag of China.

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/30/china_micromanages_tibet_floods_it_with_money_to_woo_locals/

Long, informative article worth the read. It covers a lot more than religion.

[DetlefK]

1. HAHAHAHA! "Library" - That was a good one.

"Here's a library full of censored and state-approved books. Now say 'Thank You' and don't you dare read or write anything critical or we bust your kneecaps."

[MisterP]

2. that's what usually happens with "trouble" spots, just bribe them to improve conditions and also

their view of the capital: same story with Quebec, and had Scotland split it would've immediately faced this situation with the Shetlands and had to stuff the new Pund Scots into its cry-hole