A Chinese county has banned Tibetan Monks “wrongly educated” in India from teaching Buddhism, fearing that they may spread “separatist” content, according to a state-run media report.
“Monks wrongly educated in India are banned from teaching Buddhism to residents of litang county in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province,” state-run Global Times quoted an official as saying yesterday.
The county conducts patriotic education classes every year for those educated and awarded Gexe lharampa - the highest academic degree in Tibetan Buddhist studies - in India, an official from litang’s ethnic and religious affairs bureau told the paper.
Those who behaved improperly at the patriotic classes or showed “any signs of separatist intent” are strictly monitored and banned from teaching Buddhism to the public, the official said.
The move was a standard practice every year “in response to the county’s severe separatist situation,” the official said.