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R 150920Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
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INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 4150

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000228 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  10/15/2034 
TAGS: PHUM SOCI VOA CH
SUBJECT: TIBETAN MONKS SAY VOA BROADCASTS ARE INFORMATION LIFELINE 
 
REF: (A)CHENGDU 117 (B) 08 CHENGDU 189 (C) 08 CHENGDU 30 (D) FBS2008121931718 
 
CHENGDU 00000228  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate 
General Chengdu. 
REASON: 1.4 (d) 
¶1. (S) Summary:  Chengdu ethnic Tibetan LES (strictly protect) 
in early October spent a week at Labrang Monastery in Gansu 
Province, visiting family and senior monks -- including the 
chief religious tutor to the Beijing-recognized 11th Panchen 
Lama.  The tutor did not have a picture of the young Panchen 
Lama among his large collection of photos of prominent monks, 
which included the Dalai Lama -- a clear sign that he does not 
think the Panchen Lama is legitimate.  One monk said that 
earlier this year, a group of young monks destroyed the Chinese 
government-installed cable TV system in order to allow monks to 
install their own satellite dishes to watch Voice of America 
(VOA) television and access VOA and RFA audio channels on the 
satellite.  The government and the monastery democratic 
management committee have decided not to intervene for now. 
Labrang monks invited to villages to chant prayers sometimes 
help villagers reorient their satellite dishes so they can watch 
VOA, the monks said.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
¶2. (S) In early October, Chengdu ethnic Tibetan LES visited 
Labrang Monastery in southern Gansu Province.  Labrang is home 
to 1,200 registered monks and 2,000 unregistered monks of the 
Dalai Lama's Gelug school, and is the largest Gelug monastery in 
the Amdo region of traditional Tibet (Note: Amdo now consists of 
most of Qinghai Province, as well as portions of Gansu and 
Sichuan Provinces.  End Note.).  Chengdu LES was educated at 
Labrang as a lay student for nine years before attending Chinese 
schools.  The monastery, because of its size and perhaps also 
because of the influence of its abbot, Jamyang Shepa, has 
preserved a greater margin of autonomy than medium and small 
monasteries in the Tibetan areas of China. 
 
 
 
A Visit with the Beijing Panchen Lama's Religious Tutor 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
 
 
¶3. (S) Chengdu LES visited Jamyang Gyamtso, religious (tantric) 
tutor to the 11th (Beijing-recognized) Panchen Lama, at Labrang 
Monastery in early October.  Gyamtso spends most of his time at 
the monastery and goes to Beijing only on special occasions. 
Gyamtso's own room and chapel are filled with pictures of other 
distinguished lamas, including a small picture of the Dalai 
Lama. Remarkably, although the Panchen Lama is the second most 
important lama in Tibetan Buddhism, there is no picture of his 
student, the Beijing-recognized Panchen Lama -- a clear sign 
that he does not think the Panchen Lama is legitimate. Gyamtso 
said that all the monks have a strong wish for the Dalai Lama to 
return.  Gyantso said he stays well informed on the Dalai Lama 
and Dharamsala through visitors who have been to India and from 
what other monks tell him about what they have heard on VOA. 
When Chengdu LES told Gyamtso that he works at the U.S. 
Consulate in Chengdu, the lama said, "Your work is very 
important -- you must be dedicated and not allow yourself to be 
distracted." 
 
 
 
¶4. (S) In a separate conversation with one of the leading monks 
in the monastery, Palden Gyamtso, tutor to the Seventh Gontang 
Tsang, the latest in a line of Gansu Tibetan re-incarnated 
lamas, told Chengdu LES that the statements of Chinese officials 
are not trustworthy and nobody can understand how they think. 
 
 
 
VOA/RFA Broadcasts Widely Listened to in Tibetan Areas 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) Time and again (refs A and B), Tibetan contacts have 
told us that they frequently listen to VOA and Radio Free Asia 
(RFA).  The proliferation of inexpensive satellite dishes and 
receivers across China has made access to these broadcasts 
easier, although in some areas, such as Sichuan Province's Ganzi 
Prefecture, the local government has erected tall towers in an 
effort to jam satellite signals.  Such jamming works in the case 
of satellite dishes, however, only for dishes within a few miles 
of and below the level of the jamming transmitters on the 
towers. 
 
 
 
¶6. (S) The broadcasts are of particular importance at Labrang. 
 
CHENGDU 00000228  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Two monks discussed with Chengdu LES how earlier this year a 
group of monks objected to the government's destruction in 
October 2008 of satellite dishes monks used to watch VOA and 
Indian television programs.  This was part of a two year old 
national campaign to remove many private satellite dishes and 
replace them with government-controlled cable systems (refs C 
and D).  The group of monks completely destroyed the new 
satellite/cable TV system that the government had installed at 
the monastery. The group of monks then posted notices around the 
monastery saying that the government's action was intolerable 
and that they would "fight to the death" to prevent the 
re-installation of the government's cable TV system in the 
monastery.  Many monks re-installed their own satellite dishes. 
 
 
 
¶7. (S) The local government met with the Labrang Monastery 
Democratic Management Committee (DMC) to try to resolve the 
situation, but concluded that the DMC could not control the 
situation and so decided to take no action for now.  One of the 
monks told Chengdu LES that there was an unconfirmed rumor that 
there was an organization among the monks named Danshe Tsugpa, 
which can be translated variously as "die for religion" or 
"forever dead."  The two monks said that monks invited to pray 
at villages in religious ceremonies also sometimes helped 
villagers reorient their dishes and adjust their receivers so as 
to keep them constantly tuned to VOA. 
 
 
 
¶8. (C) Over ten other monks whom Chengdu LES visited at Labrang 
showed him the satellite connections to their computers which 
allowing them to receive VOA TV and radio.  The great majority 
of Labrang monks have such access, the monks said.  They also 
have software installed on their computers that enables them to 
defeat the Great Red Firewall and access websites blocked by the 
Chinese government and to listen to access online radio and TV 
broadcasts. 
 
 
 
Information Gulf Widens Town-Monastery Political Divide 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
 
 
¶9. (S) The two monks said that the Tibetan language broadcasts 
of VOA were the most important source of information for 
Labrang's monks about the outside world.  Chengdu LES noticed 
the monks had very recent information -- for example during his 
week-long stay, Tibetan monks were discussing President Obama's 
Nobel Peace Prize and the award of the Lantos Prize to the Dalai 
Lama.  The two monks said that sometimes Tibetan cadres from the 
township government would visit friends at the monastery to get 
information about the outside world and the Tibetan 
government-in-exile not available from the Chinese media.  Some 
monks say they listen to VOA so often that they understand the 
Lhasa dialect of Tibetan much better now. The two monks 
commented that the gap is widening between the township, which 
gets its information from Chinese Central Television on one 
side, and Labrang Monastery (and rural Tibetans who stand 
together with the monks), who get their information via VOA. 
Much more than before, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan situation 
are discussed at Labrang.  While the differences between the 
monks at Labrang and the Tibetan cadres in the nearby township 
used to be merely differences between their respective religious 
and bureaucratic cultures, today the differences between the two 
are much more political, said the two monks. 
 
 
 
Influential Broadcasts, Volatile Situation: Accuracy Essential 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------------- 
 
 
 
¶10. (C) Comment: Given the high credibility of VOA broadcasts 
among Tibetans and the unique information source these 
broadcasts provide, the extent to which Tibetans are willing to 
go to access the broadcasts, and the volatility of the Tibetan 
situation, it is essential that VOA broadcasts maintain the high 
standards of balance and accuracy they have shown to date.  End 
Comment. 
 
 
 
¶11. (U) This cable has been coordinated with Embassy Beijing. 
BROWN