As Dalai Lama turns 90, BBC visits heart of Tibetan resistance to China

It is surrounded by the grains of the prayer that it moves in a crimson, and it exceeds his fingers, the monk walks towards us.

It is a risky decision.

We follow eight unidentified men. Even saying a few words to us in public places can make it in trouble.

But it seems ready to take the opportunity. “Things here are not good for us,” he says quietly.

This monastery in the Sichuan Southwest Chinese province was in the midst of the Tibetan resistance for decades – the world learned the name In the late first decade of the twentieth century, with the shooting of themselves Tabitin There is a challenge to Chinese rule. Nearly two decades, Deir Kerti still worries Beijing.

A police station was built inside the main entrance. Sit along with a small dark room full of prayer wheels that revolve. The nests of surveillance cameras are surrounded by thick compound steel columns, wiping at every corner.

“They have no good heart; everyone can see it,” the monk added. Then a warning comes. “Be careful, people watch you.”

While men direct us, the monk runs.

They are “the Communist Party in China, which has now governed more than six million Tabitin for nearly 75 years, since the annexation of the region in 1950.

China has invested extensively in the region, building new roads and railways to enhance tourism and integrate it with the rest of the country. The Tibetan, who fled, says economic development also brought more forces and officials, and they cut their faith and freedoms.

Beijing Tibet looks as an integral part of China. The spiritual leader in Tibet, the Dalai Lama, has described as separatist, and those who show his image or give him general support that may end behind bars.

However, some in ABA, or Ngaba in Tibet, which is home to the Kirti monastery, have gone into severe measures to challenge these restrictions.

The city is located outside what China calls the independent Tibet region (TAR), which was created in 1965, which includes about half of the Tibetan plateau. But millions of Tabitians live outside the tar – and considered the rest part of their homeland.

ABA has long played an important role. The protests erupted here during the uprising at the Tibetan level in 2008 after, through some accounts, a monk held a picture of Dalai Lama inside the Monastery of Kerte. Ultimately, riots escalated and the Chinese forces opened fire. At least 18 Tabita was killed in this small city.

When Tibette rose in protest, it often turned into violent clashes with the Chinese paramilitary. Beijing claims that 22 people died, while Tibetan groups placed in exile in about 200.

In the following years, there were more than 150 self -obligations calling for the return of the Dalai Lama – most of them occurred in or about ABA. He got the main street of Qahkat: a martyr of row.

China has shocked more strongly, making it almost impossible to determine what is happening in Tibet or Tibet areas. Information that appears from those who fled abroad, or the exile government in India.

To find out more, we went back to the monastery the next day before dawn. We created beyond our births and raised our way to Aba to get the morning prayer.

The monks gathered in their yellow hats, a symbol of the Buddhist School in Gilog. Low escaping echo across the hall while ritual smoke remained in the wet fixed air. About 30 local men and women sat, most of them are traditional long -sleeved jackets, sitting until they wear small legs until a small bell is scattered to end the prayer.

One of the monk told us: “The Chinese government has poisoned the air in Tibet. It is not a good government.”

“We Tibetan are a deprivation of basic human rights. The Chinese government continues our suppression and persecution. It is not a government that serves the people.”

There were no details, and our conversations were short to avoid detection. However, it is rarely hearing these sounds.

The issue of the future of Tibet has been urgent with the Dalai Lama 90 this week. Hundreds of followers in the Indian town of Darmachala gather to honor him. he The long -awaited caliphate plan announced On Wednesday, reaffirm what he said before: The next Dalai Lama will be chosen after his death.

Tibet’s reaction was everywhere – with comfort, doubt or anxiety – but not those in the homeland of Dalai Lama, as it is prohibited until his name is whispering.

Beijing spoke loudly and clearly: The next recovery for Dalai Lama will be in China, approved by the Chinese Communist Party. Tibet, however, was silent.

The monk told us: “This is what it is.” “This is the reality.”

The road to ABA wind slowly for 500 km (300 miles) from the capital of Sichuan Chengdu.

It passes through the peaks of the snow -filled Sigoniang Mountain before reaching the grassy lands circulating on the edge of the hemalaya plateau.

The golden golden surfaces of Buddhist temples shine every few miles because they hunt sharp sunlight in particular. This is the ceiling of the world in which traffic allows the path to the shepherds on the horse whistle for the frequency of the shaft livestock, such as the eagle circuit above.

There are two worlds under the sky of this Himalayas, where heritage and belief collided with the party’s request to unity and control.

China has long maintained that the Tibetan is free to practice their faith. But this faith is also a source of centuries -old identity, which human rights groups say Beijing is eroding slowly.

They claim that countless Tibetans have been detained due to the organization of peaceful protests, the promotion of the Tibetan language, or even a picture of the Dalai Lama.

Many Tamitin, including some who we spoke to in Deir Kerte, are concerned about the new laws that govern the teaching of Tamitin children.

All less than 18 years old must attend the state -run Chinese schools and learn mandarin. They cannot study the Buddhist Bible in the separation of the monastery until they are 18 years old – and they must “love the country and religion and follow national laws and regulations.”

This is a major change for a community where the monks were often recruited as children, and the monasteries are doubled as schools for most boys.

“One of the nearby Buddhist institutions was demolished by the government a few months ago,” a monk told us in his sixties in Aba, from under an umbrella walking to the prayers in the rain.

“It was the preaching school,” he added, to be emotional.

The new rules follow a 2021 order for all schools in Tibetan areas, including kindergarten, to teach in Chinese. Beijing says this gives children to be a better snapshot of jobs in a country where the main language is mandarin.

But such regulations can have a “profound effect” on the future of Buddhist Tibetan, according to famous researcher Robert Barnet.

“We move on to a scenario of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has full control – towards an era of few information that enters the Tibet, and the small Tibetan language is shared,” says Mr. Barnant.

“Education will be almost completely around Chinese festivals, Chinese virtues, and advanced Chinese traditional culture. We are looking for full management of intellectual inputs.”

The road to ABA appears from the money in which Beijing pumped into this remote corner of the world. A new high -speed railway embraces the hills that connect Sichuan to other provinces on the plateau.

In ABA, you join the usual high store facades that sell monks and incense beams hotels, cafes and new restaurants to seduce tourists.

Chinese tourists reach long -distance hiking equipment and stand surprised by local believers on wooden blocks at the entrance to Buddhist temples.

“How do they accomplish anything throughout the day?” One tourist wonders loudly. Others turn the wheels of prayer enthusiastically and ask about the rich and colored murals depicting scenes from the life of Buddha.

The logo written on the side of the road is characterized by that “people from all ethnic groups are closely united like the seeds in the pomegranate.”

But it is difficult to miss the widespread monitoring.

The hotel’s checkpoint requires facial recognition. Even buying gasoline requires several forms of identity that appear on high -resolution cameras. China has always dominated the information that its citizens could access – but in Tibetan areas, the grip is more tight.

“The Tibeton is” closed from the outside world. “

Its number is difficult to determine the Dalai Lama Declaration on Wednesday – broadcasting to the world, and it underwent control in China.

Living in exile in India since 1959, Dalai Lama called for more independence, instead of full independence, for his country. Beijing believes that he “has no right to represent the Tibetan people.”

In 2011, the political authority handed over to a government in exile, which it was democratically chosen by 130,000 Tibetan in the world-and that the government held a back channel talks this year with the caliphate plan, but it is not clear whether they had advanced.

Al -Dalai Lama previously suggested that his successor would be from the “free world”, that is, outside China. On Wednesday, he said, “No one has any authority to intervene.”

This paves the way for confrontation with Beijing, who said that the process should “must follow religious rituals and historical customs, and are dealt with according to national laws and regulations.”

Parnet says that Beijing is already doing the basic work to persuade the Tibetan.

“There is already a huge propaganda device in place. The party has sent teams to offices, schools and villages to teach people about” new regulations “to choose the Dalai Lama.

When Panchen Lama, the second highest salad in Tibetan Buddhism, died in 1989, Dalai Lama set up for this position in Tibet. But the child disappeared. Beijing was accused of kidnapping, although he insists that the boy, who is now adult, is safe. Then she agreed to Pancen Lama, who does not recognize Tibeton outside China.

If there are two types of Dalai Lamas, it may become a test of persuasion forces in China. Which one will know the world? More importantly, does most of the Tabitin in China know the other Lama?

China wants a reliable successor – but perhaps no trusted.

Because Mr. Barnett says, “Beijing wants” to convert the lion of Tibetan culture into a pen.

“She wants to remove the things she considers risky and replaced by things that he believes that Tamitin should think: patriotism, loyalty and clearance. They love singing and dancing – a Disney version of Tibetan culture.”

Mr. Barnetted concluded that “we do not know how much stay is alive.”

While we leave the monastery, there is a group of women who carry heavy baskets full of tools for construction or agriculture through the prayer wheel room, and spin it in the direction of the clock.

They sing in Tibet and smile as they pass, and their folded gray hair only under the sun’s hats.

The Tibetan clung to their identity 75 years ago, fighting for it and die for that.

The challenge now will be to protect it, even when the man who embodies their beliefs – and their resistance disappears.

Get the leading newsletter with all the addresses you need to start today. Subscribe here.