In Tibetan Buddhist heartland, Communist Party takeover threatens religious academy’s soul
Deputy police chief named to take over as head of a new party committee to run formerly independent religious academy
In a remote, treeless valley on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, Larung Gar has grown from a small encampment of a few dozen disciples into the world’s biggest academy for Tibetan Buddhism.
It was founded in 1980 by the late charismatic lama Jigme Phuntsok and has attracted tens of thousands of monks and nuns who have together built a sprawling network of red-painted homes on the valley’s hillsides.
Over the decades, Larung Gar has operated as an independent centre of learning and since Jigme Phuntsok’s death in 2004 has been administered in turns by a group of revered khenpos, or senior monks.
But today the academy is facing an existential threat – it will soon to be taken over by a Communist Party committee headed by a local police officer.
Observers say the move will allow the party to exert greater control and surveillance over the academy and is just the latest attempt by Beijing to get a tighter grip on religion.
News of the change became public on Monday when the party’s personnel arm in Garze, the Sichuan prefecture where Larung Gar is located, released a list of party cadres appointed to run the academy and monastery.
