(TibetanReview.net, Mar 12, 2009) — The government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) declared Mar 9, the event of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising, that its year long legal education at the monasteries there was a success. More than 2,300 officials were sent to Tibet’s 505 monasteries after the deadly riots of Mar 14 last year to promote the legal awareness of monks and nuns and dissuade them from being duped by separatist forces and ensure the normal practice of Buddhism, China’s official Xinhua news agency Mar 9 quoted Soinam Renzin, deputy chief of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Tibet Regional Committee, as saying.
With regard to Drepung Monastery in the outskirts of Lhasa, the report said that after the “riots”, the management sent away about 700 visiting monks back to their home provinces and only the registered 600 stayed on. It said that at Sera Monastery, another major monasteries in Lhasa, more than 500 visiting monks and lodgers were “cleaned out” (ie, expelled) in the post-riots head-count.
The report claimed that the TAR had more than 1,700 religious sites, accommodating 46,000 monks and nuns. It said nearly 90 percent of the region’s 2.8 million people were devout Buddhists.