(TibetanReview.net, Dec27’24) –China has deployed hundreds of additional troops at the world’s biggest centre for the study of Tibetan Buddhism located in Serthar (Chinese: Seda) County of Kardze (Ganzi) prefecture, Sichuan province, to enforce severe new restrictions in the coming new year, said the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on its Tibet.net website Dec 27.
Some 400 Chinese troops from neighbouring Draggo (Luhuo) and other neighbouring counties arrived at the Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy on Dec 20. This was accompanied by a helicopter surveillance operation, signalling an intensification of monitoring activities at the academy, the report said.
The report cited sources as saying the stringent new regulations will limit residency at the academy to a maximum of 15 years, required all monks and nuns studying in it to be officially registered, and drastically reduce the number of monks and nuns across the province to as low as 1,000.
The academy alone had around 10,000 officially registered residents before China launched a severe and massive crackdown on it in 2001, which continued over the following years, especially during 2016-17, forcibly evicting monks and nuns and destroying buildings, including residences.
The report said Chinese students are already reportedly being asked to leave the academy.
The academy and its monastery, founded in 1980 by Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok at his mountain retreat with support from the 10th Panchen Lama, sprawls over a mountainside in Serthar county.
The CTA report called the latest development an escalation in China’s broader campaign to restrict religious freedom in Tibet, where traditional Buddhist institutions have faced increasing pressure under state policies aimed at controlling religious practice and education.