Lhasa [Tibet] March 2 (ANI)

The Chinese government demolished the Tibetan Buddhist statuePadmasambhava, built six years ago to stamp out the Tibetans’ religioustraditions.

SangyalKunchok, writing in Radio Free Asia (RFA) said that this is the third TibetanBuddhist statue destroyed in the past three months, since December.
The razing of Padmasambhava is seen as the latest infringement on Tibetanreligious freedom. The statue of Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche. Itonce stood three-storyed high at the Chanang Monastery in Drago (in ChineseLuhuo) county of the Kardze (in Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
It was razed in late January, sources living in exile and satellite imageryrevealed.
“This is the second massive destruction in Drago in January alone,” a Tibetanliving in exile told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
RFA reported that another three-story statue at a different monastery in Dragohad been destroyed in early January, only weeks after authorities toppled a99-foot Buddha statue just 900 meters (2,700) away. A three-story structure isaround 40 feet high.
Satellite imagery of the Chanang Monastery taken October 3, 2019, shows thesite of the statue of Padmasambhava which stood three-storyed high, but animage taken February 25, 2022 shows the destruction of the statue as indicatedby the circular objects on the ground, said Kunchok.
“Though there has been no explanation of the reasons for its destruction, itfalls in line with the Chinese government’s policy of demolishing Tibetanreligious sites in the region,” the exiled Tibetan said.
“Though the Chinese authorities warned that they would demolish the statue lastyear, one of the Lamas of the monastery had documentation supporting thesignificance of the statue, so the demolition was pushed to a later date,” thesource said.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities make up regulations to justify the demolition ofTibetan statues, another Tibetan exile told RFA.
“When the Chinese government demolished the 99-foot statue of Buddha and thethree-story statue of Maitreya Buddha at Gaden Namyal Ling monastery in Drago,they trotted out unbelievable justifications such as that the height of thestatue was not appropriate … or that it was blocking the pathway within themonastery compound,” the second source said.
“But this statue of Padmasambhava is not in the way of the monastery, so it isevident that it can be nothing but the Chinese government’s encroachment onTibetans’ religious freedom,” the second source said. (ANI)