(TibetanReview.net, Mar25, 2017) – The Chinese government’s plan to drastically downsize the size of the students and the residential sprawl at the globally famed Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist academy in Serta (Chinese: Seda) County of Sichuan Province is nearing completion with 4,828 monks and nuns having been expelled since Jul 2016 and about 250 more under orders to leave by Mar 27, reported the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (Washington) Mar 23.
“Those who have left had never wanted to leave,” a senior abbot of the institute was quoted as having told the remaining residents on Mar 23, while announcing the nearing of the end of the Chinese government campaign, adding, “All left against their own wish. And whether or not they had some place to go, they still had to leave.”
It was not clear how many residences of monks and nuns had been demolished thus far. The senior abbot has only said that after months of destruction by Chinese work crews of monastic dwellings at Larung Gar, about 2,000 homes still remained to be torn down. He has added that this work will begin on Mar 24.
The report also cited a recent traveller to the area as saying monks and nuns at Larung Gar had been seen in some cases to be helping to demolish each others’ homes ahead of the Chinese government schedule. The purpose was stated to be to “safely collect their belongings and set timber aside for future use.”