(TibetanReview.net, Oct30’26) – The US State Department has on Oct 29 called on China to stop interfering with the religious freedom of the Tibetan people following reports that authorities had begun demolishing the residential quarters of some 200 monks at a monastery in Sershul (Chinese: Shiqu) County of Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture, Sichuan Province. This preceded another large-scale demolition work carried out in another major Buddhist study centre in the same prefecture.
The demolitions were begun over Oct 25-26 in the county’s Dza Sershul Thekchen Dargyeling Monastery, reported rfa.org Oct 29, citing a local source who spoke on condition of anonymity for personal safety reasons.
“Everything is over now,” the source has said. “We are losing everything.”
The report cited a US State Department spokesperson as saying the demolitions in Sershul reflected broader Chinese government efforts to bring spiritual institutions, religious education, and monastic life under government control.
“Tibetan Buddhists should have the right to practice their faith freely, educate their clergy and choose their religious leaders, including the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, without government interference,” the spokesperson has told rfa.org, referring to Beijing’s past and likely future interference with the established succession customs of the two most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
The report called the demolition in Sershul not an isolated incident but part of a larger campaign to reduce monk populations at Tibetan religious institutions. It said that earlier, in Aug 2026, Chinese authorities resumed demolition of monastic residences at the famed Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in Serthar (Seda) county in the same prefecture. It cited activists as saying these have been taking place as China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law came into force on Jul 1, 2026.
The report cited the source as saying authorities were planning further restrictions that would prevent monks from continuing to stay at the monastery after the demolitions.
The report said relevant county officials when contacted by phone, hung up without answering any question.
“Demolition of Tibetan monasteries is just one tactic in a wider effort by Chinese authorities to sever the people of Tibet from their Tibetan Buddhist heritage, including the forced assimilation of ethnic minorities through the draconian ‘Ethnic Unity’ law that came into effect in July,” Asif Mahmood, Chair of US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the US government, has told RFA.
Founded in 1760, Dza Sershul Monastery is the largest Gelug school Buddhist institution in the Dzachuka region of Sershul County. The monastery had around 500 monks in 2012, following government-imposed enrolment cuts, while more recent estimates placed the number of monks at over 1,200, the Central Tibetan Administration earlier noted in a Tibet.net report Oct 27.