Patriotic Education in Lhasa

Reports say the hard line Chinese #1 and his Tibetan co-leader visited the Jokhang monastery in Lhasa. They didn't go there to pray for peace.

They went there to tell the monks they would increase "patriotic education" classes in all the monasteries. Re-education through reform, ideology, propaganda and control. It's about control.

Historically, the Chinese, after destroying and looting monasteries in Tibet and in mainland China during the 10-year Cultural Revolution, restricted the number of monks at the three major Lhasa monasteries, Sera, Drepung and Ganden.

They recruited some Tibetans to live and work in the monasteries as spies and informers. This system had proved effective during the Cultural Revolution when family members reported on each other, neighbors and wild capitalist running dogs. It was a practical "peoples" campaign of fear and suspicion to create paranoia and ideological control.

Monks and nuns allowed to live and practice in the monasteries who resist or question this form of subtle "patriotic education" risk imprisonment, torture and death. They well know what has and continues to happen to monks and nuns at the notorious Drapchi prison outside Lhasa.

Peace.