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Tibetan Buddhists congress says no to separatism

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-19 09:17

LHASA -- Tibetan Buddhists revised their association constitution Wednesday, calling on lamas and nuns to safeguard social stability, abide by the law and not to participate in separatist activities.

The revision was unanimously endorsed at the annual congress of the region's Buddhist association which began Monday and closed Wednesday.

Monks and nuns should "safeguard social stability, the socialist legal system and fundamental interests of the people", and should "consciously keep themselves away" from separatist activities and illegal demonstrations that impair social order, the new constitution said.

It urged monks to "see clearly that the 14th Dalai Lama is the ringleader of the separatist political association which seeks 'Tibet independence', a loyal tool of anti-China Western forces, the very root that causes social unrest in Tibet and the biggest obstacle for Tibetan Buddhism to build up its order."

The revision was made as a response to the unrest in last March under the backdrop of a complicated international situation and new problems that had emerged in monasteries, said Pencog Cering, secretary general of the Tibet Branch of the Buddhist Association of China (TBBAC).

"Monks should love their country and be loyal to their religion," said Chubakang Tubdain Kaizhub, TBBAC chairman, adding that to strictly follow Buddhist doctrines is to abide by law.

About 250 living Buddhas, monks and nuns from different sects of Tibetan Buddhism attended the congress, which started with a half-hour sutra-reciting ceremony Monday morning at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

Also on Wednesday, 36 monks and nuns and 10 monasteries including the Zhaxilunbo Monastery in Xigaze were awarded the title of "patriotic and law-abiding" models by the Tibet Autonomous Regional Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.

"The monks and nuns and monasteries have safeguarded the unity of the country and contributed to the promotion of social stability over the past years, especially during the March 14 riot in 2008 in Lhasa," said Tenzin, a senior official with the committee, on the award-presenting ceremony.