(TibetanReview.net, Apr13’24) — China has ordered a 135-year-old vibrant Tibetan Buddhist monastic centre in Tsolho (Chinese: Hainan) Prefecture of Qinghai province to relocate to make way for building the world’s tallest 3D-printed hydropower dam, claiming it has “no significant value or importance”, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Apr 12, citing two unnamed local sources.
Local Tibetans are said to accuse China of ignoring the fact that not only is the Atsok Gon Dechen Choekhorling Monastery well over a century old but also that it has attained great sacredness on account of its historicity and inviolable contents.
Founded in 1889 and named after its founder Atsok Choktrul Konchog Choedar, the monastery is home to more than 160 monks.
Authorities have promised to fund the costs of dismantling and reconstructing the monastery. However, many of the murals and surrounding stupas cannot be physically moved and so will be destroyed.
The relocation is being carried out as an expansion of the Yangqu hydropower station on the Machu (Yellow River) in the prefecture’s Dragkar (Xinghai) county. It was started in 2022 and will be completed later this year.
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The report said that over the past two years, monks from the monastery had been petitioning the authorities to rescind the relocation orders issued by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
However, in Apr 2023, the government’s Department of National Heritage declared that the artifacts and murals inside the monastery were of “no significant value or importance” and that its relocation would proceed, the report cited a local source as saying, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.
The report said that in one video, a local Chinese official could be heard saying, “The resettlement work could begin with the government’s approval and the support of the local population.”
However, local authorities have warned the head of the monastery and residents that they “will be punished for any disturbance caused” during the relocation process.
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The report cited the NDRC as having said the Yangqu dam will force the relocation of 15,555 people – nearly all ethnic Tibetans – living in 24 towns and villages in three counties — Dragkar, Kawasumdo and Mangra.
While authorities have announced that the monks of Atsok Monastery and residents of nearby villages will be relocated to Khokar Naglo, near Palkha township, no alternative housing has been built for the monks, the report said.
The Yangqu hydroelectric plant — expected to generate about 5 billion kilowatts of power annually to be supplied to Henan province — is an expansion of the Yangqu Dam that was first built in 2010 and began operating in 2016 as a 1,200-megawatt hydropower station, the report noted.
The first section of the new dam, said to be over 150 metres (about 500 feet) tall, is scheduled to become operational this year, with the entire project becoming operational the following year, the report added.