from Hacker News

China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

by nu2ycombinator on 6/18/16, 6:50 AM with 235 comments

  • by kweks on 6/18/16, 10:13 AM

    I was there literally three days ago. The place is nothing short of breathtaking. Nestled at 4200km, it was a three day motorbike ride from Chengdu. Even at its foothills, you have no concept of the scale of the town hiding in the hills.

    This will truly be a tragic loss - the town is much more than the 'slum' it is represented as - it's arguably the most important Buddhist learning institution in the world..

    Photos for the interested from my visit: http://travel.ninjito.com/dump/2016-06-15-Larung-Gar/index.h...

    Edit: Got a good internet connection, uploaded decent photos.

  • by oi5zkc on 6/18/16, 11:01 AM

    I visited Yaqing/Yachen mentioned at the bottom of the article about a month ago. The experience was surreal. In the middle of nowhere, 4 hours from the nearest city, the monastery is a sprawling complex of huts around the bend in a river in the tibetan tundra.

    Here are some pictures: http://imgur.com/a/v4gYI

    The hygienic conditions are very poor - people doing their business squatting on the streets, no toilets, rubbish everywhere. I am surprised that was not an argument being made by the government for the demolition.

    There is some concern about foreign - especially American and British - influence on Tibetan Buddhists in the government. I am not sure this move will serve to diminish this influence.

    Ps: on another note, a surprising number of these ascetic monks had an iPhone 6s+ or Samsung S7 in their pockets!

  • by andy_ppp on 6/18/16, 3:27 PM

    I do not understand the cowardice and fear the Chinese government seem to have of a small buddhist settlement in the middle of nowhere high up in the mountains of Tibet... It looks like they feel the opposite of a superpower and that a few buddhist monks might threaten them so much they have to destroy them. It's very easy to forget how free we are by comparison to those persecuted in occupied territories.

  • by huahaiy on 6/18/16, 6:22 PM

    Allow me to share some of my perspectives.

    I grow up in Seda County in the late 70 and early 80s, and am intimately familiar with culture there. Tibetan Buddhism is not what people in the west think what it is. It is actually quite repressive and brutal. After 1950s, many regular Tibetans were glad to worship the new religion of Chairman Mao instead. Yes, it was true. Chairman Mao was worshiped as one of major Gods at Tibet when I grow up there. Then Deng Xiaoping took power and demolished Chairman Mao worshiping (one of his major blunders, on the same scale as that of 89 Tienanmen massacre), now we got this huge slum town of "religious learning" at a hot basin of Buddhist rebellions. Yes, going unchecked, that town would surely become such a terrorists base, because Buddhist monks in that area had always been very militant and had launched numerous rebellions in 60 and 70s. As a child, I heard all kinds of horrific stories Tibetan monks and their rebellious army inflicted on the Chinese soldiers and civilians alike. For that reason, many Han Chinese families kept firearms at home in that area, a rare thing in China.

    On the other hand, Tibetan people in general are good people. One of my cousins married a Tibetan man and we are good drinking buddies. However, Tibetan religious upper class are representatives of a theocracy at worst: greedy, deceptive and brutal.

    I am surprised that this town was tolerated for so long. I guess Deng's power was still strong even after his death.

  • by mhuffman on 6/18/16, 8:43 AM

    Wow! It is amazing that we do not consider this a human rights violation. Oh well, gotta keep them prices low at Walmart!

  • by icebraining on 6/18/16, 9:08 AM

    Here are a bunch of photos from the place: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2349761/Little-boxes...

  • by tomglynch on 6/18/16, 8:40 AM

    "In 2001, Chinese authorities implemented similar crackdown on Larung Gar by destroying thousands of monastic dwellings and expulsion of monastic and lay practitioners, some of whom died of shock or resorted to suicide, while some were rendered mentally unsound."

  • by eggy on 6/18/16, 10:24 AM

    This will bring the Free Tibet movement to the front again for the next POTUS.

    I am sure China will put the 'safety' issue forward, and deflect the independence movement. Remember the earthquake of May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province, China, where over 68,000 people died, and more went missing. The focus in the media was on the houses not being up to standard building codes.

    The earthquake in Nepal in 2015 surely affected Tibet too, but information was controlled by China, so the numbers are questionable. Larung Gar is a sprawl of houses for monks, worshipers, students and visitors that could be seen as a potential earthquake hazard area as spun by Chinese media.

  • by nxzero on 6/18/16, 4:36 PM

    China's obsession with the destruction of Tibet and its culture is truly troubling.

    If China has its way, hundreds of years from now, Tibet will be gone, no record of it will exist, etc.

  • by 31reasons on 6/18/16, 6:34 PM

    Of all people the residents of the town will be the least unhappy about it. Because they truly know everything is impermanent. Its their practice and will see it as part of nature. Today I shall not buy anything Chinese. I wish there was a supermarket that sold things not made in China.

  • by abrbhat on 6/18/16, 1:12 PM

  • by whistlerbrk on 6/18/16, 1:54 PM

    Remember when free trade was going to democratize and open China? What happened? This is terrible

  • by mac01021 on 6/18/16, 11:49 AM

    I didn't notice in the article any mention of why there is a population limit set for this town.

    Is it explicitly a measure taken to limit solidarity in a religious/ethnic minority? Is there a concern about the food supply?

  • by ommunist on 6/19/16, 6:39 PM

    So what? This is a normal procedure. Authorities set ceiling of no more than 5000 dwellers there. That was ignored. Face the concequences.

    For those curious - China is colonising Tibet, nothing wrong in industrial nation wiping out the weakling. When the British colonised Americas they did the same with more than 600 First Nations. They just did it earlier.

  • by eisvogel on 6/18/16, 11:10 AM

    This is ass. It's time for a regime change.

  • by sbose78 on 6/18/16, 8:40 AM

    Any way of getting the UN involved?

  • by reustle on 6/18/16, 8:55 AM

    Not saying this is right, but it sounds like the city exceeded their legal cap of 5k people? So it doesn't sound like it's a total surprise to them. Am I reading it wrong?

  • by colordrops on 6/18/16, 6:11 PM

    And yet people are more concerned about ancient statues blown up by muslim extremists. This seems like it shall be a greater tragedy by at least an order of magnitude.

  • by sova on 6/18/16, 8:24 PM

    What great sadness and folly. Oh may the future be free of such mindless pursuit of conquest.

  • by gscott on 6/18/16, 6:18 PM

    China has some seriously evil leaders.

  • by discardorama on 6/18/16, 7:55 PM

    Chinese are bullies. And bullies pee in their pants when faced with real resistance. That's the best way to describe it.