(TibetanReview.net, Sep13’24) – The historically Tibetan area in Dragkar (Chinese: Xinghai) county of Tsolho (Hainan) prefecture in Qinghai province, which until recently hummed with Buddhist prayers and teemed with streams of worshippers, regaled by several annual religious festivities, now lies buried under a hydropower dam, a shrill metaphor for the raging allegation that China is out to destroy Tibetan culture and identity. The dam has submerged not only the monastery but also the homes of over 15,000 mostly Tibetan villagers and townspeople.
The Chinese government gave a watery burial to the 135-year-old Atsok (Gon Dechen Choekhorling) Monastery by asserting naked power with brutal suppression of all Tibetan pleas to be spared from this merciless onslaught on their culture and religion and socio-economic future.
The monastery, built in 1889, was demolished earlier this year to make way for an expansion of the Yangqu hydropower station, the world’s tallest 3D-printed hydropower dam. This followed a declaration in Apr 2023 by China’s Department of National Heritage that the artifacts and murals inside the monastery were of “no significant value or importance”.
After floodgates for the dam were closed around Aug 10, reservoirs filled and water levels rose in upstream areas of the Machu River, or Yellow River in Chinese, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Sep 12, citing experts who saw the satellite imagery of the sacred place’s fate.
Satellite photos showed the complete submersion of the 18-hectare (44-acre) monastery area and nearby Chorten village and the partial submersion of adjacent farmlands of Yangchu village, Y Nithiyanandam, professor and head of the geospatial programme at Takshashila Institution in Bengaluru, India, has said.
“The water levels have risen by nearly 100 metres [328 feet] above the previous regular flow, submerging the villages. It is difficult to predict at this time whether the water storage has reached its threshold or may continue to rise,” Nithiyanandam has added.
The report also cited Jacob Bogle, a private satellite imagery analyst, as saying the images showed that water levels had reached the elevation of the monastery on Aug16; that by Aug 31, the site was completely submerged.
The growing reservoir now reaches about 30 kilometres (19 miles) upstream, possibly flooding some of the farmland around the village of Thangnak town, Bogle has said.
The report noted that while Chinese authorities had promised to fund the costs of dismantling and reconstructing parts of the monastery, many of the murals and surrounding stupas could not be physically moved and so were destroyed.
The Yangqu hydroelectric plant — expected to generate about 5 billion kilowatts of power annually for 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 expansion was started in 2022 and completed this year. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had said it would force the relocation of more than 15,500 people — nearly all ethnic Tibetans — living in 24 towns and villages in Dragkar, Kawasumdo and Mangra counties, the report noted.
Local Tibetans are stated to fear that the expanded dam could cause further flooding and destroy their homes and farmland in the nearby Yangqu village.