(TibetanReview.net, Oct13, 2016) – While booting out thousands of monks and nuns who had come from outside the local area, China is said to be offering money to those belonging to the area to voluntarily leave Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, a famed Tibetan Buddhist learning centre, in Serta (Chinese: Seda) County of Sichuan Province. The purpose is to halve the student population at the sprawling complex to a maximum of 5,000 by Sep 30 next year.
“Chinese workers going from door to door have been seen handing out flyers written in Chinese and Tibetan, encouraging monks to leave the complex by offering 20,000 yuan (US$ 2,975) for voluntary departure,” Radio Free Asia (Washington) Oct 11 quoted a local source as saying.
The source has also said, “A further 30,000 yuan (US$ 4,463) is being offered if they give up their homes to be destroyed.”
The source was cited as saying about 243 monks and nuns belonging to Serta County had now been ordered to leave Larung Gar and to turn over their houses for destruction.
China began demolishing residences of student monks and nuns at the institute on Jul 20, with the target to pull down 1,000 of them by the end of this year, while carrying out the expulsion of monks and nuns who had come from other regions.
It was previously thought that student monks and nuns belonging to Serta County were safe from eviction.