Forwarded from 📡Guardians of Hong Kong
#Newspaper
Tibet: The CCP Launches a Campaign Against Prayer Flags
//Nothing is more typical of Tibetan culture and religion than religious banners. They are now being taken down, village after village, as persecution of religion escalates.
//They are sacred artifacts, believed to create peace and harmony. Their five colors—blue, white, red, green, and yellow—represent the five elements and the five wisdoms of Buddhism... Devotees believe that the wind, by moving the prayer flags, will spread compassion and goodwill around, for the benefit of both Buddhists and non-Buddhists...They are not merely ornamental...
//The CCP is trying to destroy Tibetan religion and culture, leaving only a “Disneyfied” version for the benefit of naïve tourists. This effort is decade-old, but has increased under Xi Jinping... increasing use of torture against monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists, “thousands” of whom were arrested and detained in 2019. A new August 2019 law cancelled the pensions of those former government workers caught participating in any religious activity... the CCP announced, only a “modern, socialist system of Buddhism” will be allowed to (precariously) survive.
//CCP has now started taking down prayer flags from hilltops and villages... The campaign started in Qinghai’s Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and in Tengchen (Dingqing) county in the Chamdo municipality, Tibet Autonomous Region, and is now extending elsewhere... The campaign is carried out under the pretext of “environmental cleanup,” although the CCP also mentions “behavioral reform” of non-sinicized, non-socialist Buddhism.
//From the point of view of the devotees, this is both offense and sacrilege...those who have protested again similar moves by the CCP... have been immediately arrested, and often tortured. The prayer flags are the very soul of Tibet. Even those who are not Buddhist should protest this new manifestation of cultural genocide.
Full Article: Bitter Winter, (23-Jun)
#Tibet #Buddism #CulturalGenocide #Religon #PrayerFlags #HumanRights
Tibet: The CCP Launches a Campaign Against Prayer Flags
//Nothing is more typical of Tibetan culture and religion than religious banners. They are now being taken down, village after village, as persecution of religion escalates.
//They are sacred artifacts, believed to create peace and harmony. Their five colors—blue, white, red, green, and yellow—represent the five elements and the five wisdoms of Buddhism... Devotees believe that the wind, by moving the prayer flags, will spread compassion and goodwill around, for the benefit of both Buddhists and non-Buddhists...They are not merely ornamental...
//The CCP is trying to destroy Tibetan religion and culture, leaving only a “Disneyfied” version for the benefit of naïve tourists. This effort is decade-old, but has increased under Xi Jinping... increasing use of torture against monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists, “thousands” of whom were arrested and detained in 2019. A new August 2019 law cancelled the pensions of those former government workers caught participating in any religious activity... the CCP announced, only a “modern, socialist system of Buddhism” will be allowed to (precariously) survive.
//CCP has now started taking down prayer flags from hilltops and villages... The campaign started in Qinghai’s Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and in Tengchen (Dingqing) county in the Chamdo municipality, Tibet Autonomous Region, and is now extending elsewhere... The campaign is carried out under the pretext of “environmental cleanup,” although the CCP also mentions “behavioral reform” of non-sinicized, non-socialist Buddhism.
//From the point of view of the devotees, this is both offense and sacrilege...those who have protested again similar moves by the CCP... have been immediately arrested, and often tortured. The prayer flags are the very soul of Tibet. Even those who are not Buddhist should protest this new manifestation of cultural genocide.
Full Article: Bitter Winter, (23-Jun)
#Tibet #Buddism #CulturalGenocide #Religon #PrayerFlags #HumanRights