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FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 001537 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/08/2039 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIFR CH
SUBJECT: TIBET: FOUR MONKS SENTENCED TO LABOR CAMP AFTER 
FEBRUARY PROTEST IN GUINAN, QINGHAI PROVINCE 
 
REF: A. BEIJING 605 
     ¶B. BEIJING 483 
     ¶C. BEIJING 419 
 
Classified By: Political Minister Counselor 
Aubrey Carlson.  Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (S) Four Tibetan Buddhist monks have been 
sentenced to two years of reform through labor for 
their participation in a demonstration in Guinan, 
Qinghai Province, on February 25, according to a 
"living Buddha" at Guinan's Lucang Monastery.  Two 
additional monks were still awaiting sentencing as 
of May 15.  In addition to arresting the six, local 
authorities ordered the remainder of the 109 Lucang 
monks who participated in the demonstration to leave 
the monastery for periods of up to four months.  The 
living Buddha told us that official orders to "be 
festive" during the February 25 Tibetan New Year 
holiday had added to the resentment of the Tibetans 
in Guinan and surrounding communities.  Following 
the protest, Peoples Armed Police units had entered 
Guinan and remained through the sensitive March 10 
anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising.  Four 
local officials, including an ethnic Tibetan cadre 
working for the local office of the Chinese 
Communist Party (CCP) United Front Work Department, 
had been fired or demoted because of the protest, 
according to our source.  In March, the Guinan 
Public Security bureau installed closed-circuit 
television cameras and a police kiosk to monitor the 
monks at Lucang.  Our contact complained of 
continued political education sessions and said 
local officials had pressured him to publicly praise 
Chinese leaders.  End summary. 
 
LOSAR DEMONSTRATION IN GUINAN 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2. (S) PolOff met May 15 in Beijing with Luosang 
Cicheng Pengcuo (strictly protect), a living Buddha 
(considered to be the 6th reincarnation of the 
"Jiamao Dalama" Buddha) resident at Lucang (Lutsang) 
Monastery in Guinan (Mangra), a Tibetan town in 
Qinghai Province.  Pengcuo provided a detailed 
account of a February 25 protest by Lucang monks 
that was reported by the Norway-based Voice of 
Tibet, Radio Free Asia and other overseas media. 
 
¶3. (S) Local Guinan county officials, Pengcuo said, 
had ordered Lucang's monks to celebrate the Losar 
(Tibetan New Year) holiday February 25.  Not only 
were the monks required to "be festive," but the 
celebrations in Guinan, the officials had decreed, 
"must be better" that those in neighboring 
communities.  As they were being ordered to 
celebrate, monks and lay Tibetans in Guinan were 
circulating text messages urging a boycott of Losar 
out of respect for those who had died in the wake of 
the March 2008 violence in Tibetan regions. 
 
¶4. (S) According to Pengcuo, on the morning of 
February 25, he received a call from a member of the 
Lucang Democratic Management Committee who said a 
group of monks had marched to a Guinan county 
government building.  Pengcuo immediately went to 
the government office, where 109 monks were sitting 
outside the building gate, each with a candle. 
Pengcuo said he was aware protests would be likely 
during the sensitive period surrounding March 10, 
the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, 
but did not have prior knowledge of the February 25 
demonstration.  He was able to convince the monks to 
give up and return to the monastery within an hour. 
 
PAP ARRIVE, OFFICIALS FIRED 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5. (S) That evening, in response to the sit-in 
protest, "many" People's Armed Police (PAP) troops 
started to arrive in Guinan, according to Pengcuo. 
The PAP presence increased until there were 
"thousands of troops" in Guinan during the March 
anniversary period.  Pengcuo said the protest had 
led to the firing of several officials, including an 
ethnic Tibetan cadre who was replaced as head of the 
Guinan branch of the Communist Party United Front 
Work Department.  Pengcuo said three other low-level 
 
BEIJING 00001537  002 OF 003 
 
 
officials, including one from the Guinan Religious 
Affairs Bureau (RAB), had been removed from their 
posts for failing to prevent the demonstration. 
 
MONK BEATEN, SIX DETAINED 
------------------------- 
 
¶6. (S) In the days following the protest, local 
police required 48 monks to appear for questioning. 
According to Pengcuo, some who had refused to 
cooperate during interrogations had been "slapped 
around."  One 20-year-old monk, Luosang Xiangba 
(Chinese spelling), had been beaten severely and 
returned to Lucang unable to speak.  Pengcuo and 
other monks took him to a hospital in Xining, the 
capital of Qinghai Province, where he was diagnosed 
as mentally ill.  Luosang Xiangba has since left 
Lucang monastery and returned home.  Pengcuo 
reported that six Lucang monks who participated in 
the sit-in were eventually detained by police. 
Four, including a monk who emailed pictures of the 
demonstration to the Voice of Tibet, were recently 
sentenced to two years of reeducation through labor 
(RTL).  Two others were still awaiting sentencing. 
(NOTE:  According to an April 26 report by The Tibet 
Post, an exile newspaper, the four sentenced to RTL 
were 22-year-old Lungtok Gyatso, 24-year-old Zoepa 
Gyatso, 21-year-old Kalsang Gyatso, and 19-year-old 
Zoepa Gyatso.) 
 
PROTESTING MONKS TOLD TO LEAVE MONASTERY 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (S) Those protestors who were not jailed, Pengcuo 
said, were ordered to leave the monastery for 
periods of up to four months.  Authorities told 
seventy of the monks native to the Guinan area to 
return home for two months.  Police and RAB 
officials ordered an additional thirty monks, who 
were natives of Qinghai Province but not from 
Guinan, to return home for four months.  Pengcuo 
said he was especially angry that another living 
Buddha, who was residing temporarily at Lucang, was 
also forced to leave by RAB authorities. 
Authorities told the monks they would only be 
allowed to return to the monastery "if they behaved" 
during the suspension.  Pengcuo said that by early 
May most of the group of 70 had already filtered 
back to the monastery and they expected the rest to 
return over the summer. 
 
CAMERAS INSTALLED AT MONASTERY 
------------------------------ 
 
¶8. (S) Pengcuo reported that police surveillance of 
the monastery had increased since the Losar protest. 
In early March, the Guinan Public Security Bureau 
established a police kiosk at the entrance to the 
monastery and installed a closed-circuit television 
camera (with a view of Pengcuo's quarters) to 
monitor the monks' comings and goings. 
 
POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION CONTINUES 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (S) Pengcuo said that local officials were 
forcing the monks to attend regular political 
education campaigns.  Earlier in May, Pengcuo and 
other monastery leaders had been scheduled to give a 
series of lectures to the monks.  The Guinan RAB 
told each senior monk what to say and prepared 
material for them.  Pengcuo said RAB officials 
pressured him to make positive reference in his 
speech to statements made by Chinese Premier Wen 
Jiabao about religion.  Pengcuo said he decided to 
travel to Beijing in May, in part, to avoid having 
to give the lecture.  Pengcuo said that while the 
overall atmosphere remained "tight" at Lucang, Dalai 
Lama photos were still tolerated.  Following the 
Losar protest, police searched the quarters of 
several monks but left the Dalai Lama photos alone. 
"Police know that confiscating them will just lead 
to more problems," Pengcuo said. 
 
OTHER INCIDENTS IN QINGHAI AND GANSU 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶10. (S) Pengcuo relayed what he knew about a March 
21 protest involving monks at Lajia (Ragya) 
monastery in the Golog TAP of Qinghai Province. 
(Note:  This incident was reported by the Xinhua 
 
BEIJING 00001537  003 OF 003 
 
 
News Agency March 23.  According to the Xinhua 
report, "several hundred people, including 100 
monks," attacked a police station.  Six people were 
arrested, and 89 others "surrendered" after the 
incident.)  Pengcuo said the incident started when a 
monk, Tanshi Sangpo, was detained by police after he 
unfurled the Tibetan "snow lion" flag in the 
monastery.  Pengcuo said Sangpo escaped from the 
police station and jumped to his death in a nearby 
river.  Pengcuo said he believed that Xinhua reports 
calling Sangpo's death a suicide were accurate. 
Pengcuo also noted that the situation in Xiahe, 
Gansu Province (home of the Labrang Monastery), 
remained tense following an April 24 protest there 
by Tibetan middle school students.  Pengcuo said the 
demonstration started after officials posted 
articles in local schools denouncing the Dalai Lama. 
(Note:  International Campaign for Tibet has 
reported this demonstration, see www.savetibet.org.) 
 
TRAVEL REMAINS DIFFICULT FOR MONKS/NUNS 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (S) Pengcuo relayed that travel for Tibetan 
monks and nuns remained difficult, with those in 
religious attire singled out for arbitrary police 
checks.  For example, Pengcuo said he had learned of 
a February 15 incident in which several monks and 
nuns on a bus traveling from Xining, Qinghai 
Province, to Xiahe were subject to document checks 
and questioning by police upon arrival in Xiahe. 
None of the lay people on the bus were subject to 
such treatment, Pengcuo said, and this created 
considerable anger among the Tibetans who witnessed 
it. 
PICCUTA